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RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 






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Richard Hickman Menefee 



BY 

JOHN WILSON TOWNSEND 

Member of The Filson Club and of The Kentucky Historical Society 



"Ambition, thy name is man' 






New York and Washington 
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1907 



t^^o 



iLIBBARY of congress] 
Two Coolcs Received 
190/ 



MAR 6 

Oopyrtirtit En 

CLASS A XX« 

COPY i3. 



XXCm No. 



Copyright, 1907, by 
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 



\ 

/•s. 






\ 



To the memory of a lawycr-journalist- 
My Father 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



I. First Years, 1 1 

II. Education, 23 

III. The Young Lawyer-Politician, 39 

IV. In the Kentucky Legislature, 60 

V. In Congress, 81 

VI. Webster and Menefee, 196 

VII. In Congress (Concluded), 204 

VIII. Return to Kentucky, 232 

IX. Sundown, 255 

X. Memorials, 271 

XL Menefee, The Man, 316 

Index, • • ' 321 



PREFACE. 

Some seven years ago at a little Kentucky country 
school, a youth read for the first time about Richard Hick- 
man Alenefee. The school history of Kentucky that the 
youth was reading called j\lenefee ''the young Patrick 
Henry of the West," and this title, with the face of Mene- 
fee, the youth carried in his memory, dreaming that he 
might some day write the biography of the hero of Ken- 
tucky history. In the fall of 1904, the youth, now a stu- 
dent at the institution that succeeded Menefee's univer- 
sity, wrote for the college magazine a short sketch of his 
hero. Since then he has been collecting the materials for 
a complete biography of ]\Ienefee, which is now incor- 
porated into book form. 

This book has been written for two reasons : first, the 
admiration that the author has for the man ; second, the 
great need of such a book. jMenefee alone, of the three 
great Kentucky orators, ha? found no adequate bi- 
ographer. With the exception of Marshall's eulog}-, and 
many sketches, full and just recognition in the form of 
a complete "life,'' with a collection of his speeches, has 
been denied him. If this book succeeds in making vivid 
and definite what has been merely tradition, I shall not 
consider my work done in vain. 

]\Iy thanks are due to so many persons for assistance in 
the preparation of this biography that it would be im- 
possible to recount all of them here. Some, however, 
have assisted me so materially that they desers-e to be 
mentioned at this time. First, to Mr. Richard H. Mene- 
fee, of Louisville, the namesake and grandson of Mene- 
fee, my sincerest thanks are due. Without his assistance 
no true estimate of Menefee could have been formed. 
To Col. Reuben T. Durrett, founder and president of the 
Filson Club, for permission to work at will in the largest 
private library in Kentucky, I am very grateful. 

The following persons have also assisted me greatly: 



10 RICHARD HICKMAN MEN^I^E^ 

Dr. R. G. Thwaites, of Madison, Wisconsin; Senator 
Jos. C. S. Blackburn, of Washington; Judge Edward 
Mayes, of Jackson, Mississippi; Professor Thomas S. 
Noble, of Cincinnati, Ohio; Mr. Clarke Tandy, of Ox- 
ford England, and Miss Mary Louise Dalton, St. Louis, 
Missouri. The following Kentuckians have aided me in 
various ways : Governor J. C. W. Beckham and Assist- 
ant State Librarian Frank K. Kavanaugh, of Frankfort; 
Mr. LaVega Clements, of Owensboro; Captain John A. 
Steele, of Midway; Miss Johanna Peter, of Fayette 
County ; Mr. Lucien Beckner and Mr. James French, of 
Winchester ; Judge John A. Ramsey and Mr. William H. 
Daugherty, of Owingsville; Mrs. Albert Hoffman and 
Mr. Davis Reid, of Mt. Sterling; Mrs. Robert Harding, 
of Danville ; Dr. Edward O. Guerrant, of Wilmore, and 
the Misses Kinkead, of Lexington, one of whom is the 
only woman historian that Kentucky has produced, have 
given me the kindest encouragement that it was my for- 
tune to receive from any source while this work was in 
preparation. Also to the librarians of the Lexington 
Public Library, I am very grateful for the courtesies that 
they have seen fit to show me. Two Yale men, both 
Kentuckians, the readers of this book may, with me, 
thank. One, Dr. Hubert G. Shearin, Ph. D., of Ken- 
tucky University, for many valuable suggestions; the 
other, Mr. Charles Fennell, of Cynthiana, Kentucky, for 
assistance in obtaining several of Menefee's speeches. 

Direct bibliographical reference to the authorities con- 
sulted, except to such general works as Collins' History 
of Kentucky and biographical encyclopedias, will be 
found at the bottom of the pages. 

John Wilson Townsend, 

Lexington, Kentucky. 

November 8, 1906. 



RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

CHAPTER I 

FIRST YEARS 

Richard Hickman Menefee was born in 
Owingsville, Kentucky, December 4, 1809, and 
died in Lexington, Kentucky, February 20, 
1841. 

The name of Menefee is of Irish derivation, 
and the American founder of the family was 
George Menifie,^ who, in 1629, was one of the 
Burgesses that represented James City, in the 
Virginia House of Burgesses. Later in life 
he became a prosperous merchant. That 
George Menifie was an ancestor of Richard 
H. Menefee, there is very little doubt. At any 
rate, the Menefees were Virginians, and came 
to Kentucky in the latter half of the eighteenth 
century. 

The first Kentucky Menefees that did 
enough in the world to have their deeds re- 
corded, were four private soldiers. In the 
pioneer companies that were organized in Ken- 
tucky in 1778 on up into the nineteenth cen- 
tury, in the company of Capt. Benjamin Logan, 
who had charge of a Lincoln County company, 
the names of James, Jarrett, and Joseph Meni- 
fee are found. In Capt. John Boyle's company, 
which was scattered over that part of Ken- 
tucky that is now included in the counties of 
Garrard, Lincoln, and Boyle, the name of Wil- 

^ Hening's Statutes at Large, Vol. i, pp. 282, 297. 



12 RICHARD HICKMAN MENIFEE 

Ham IMenifee is found. And, although the il- 
literate roll-keeper spelled the name with an 
"i," instead of an "e," as many cultured Ken- 
tuckians have since done, it is almost certain 
that these four soldiers were kinsmen of Rich- 
ard H. Menefee, and the founders of the Alene- 
fee family living in Lincoln County to-day. 

Richard Menefee, the father of the subject of 
this biography, was a \'irginian by birth and 
removed to Kentucky in the last decade of the 
eighteenth century. He was by trade a potter 
and worked for many years at the old Bourbon 
furnace. Richard Menefee finally entered poli- 
tics, and in 1801-1802 was elected as the rep- 
resentative from Montgomery County in the 
Kentucky House of Representatives. In 1806 
he was returned to the House, and two years 
later was State Senator from Montgomery in 
the Kentucky Senate. This office, which 
Menefee held for the next four years, is mem- 
orable as being the time in which his great son 
was born. 

As has been stated, it was on the 4th of De- 
cember, 1809, that Richard H. jMenefee was 
born, in a log-house situated near a spring. 
One or two vears after his birth his father tore 
down the log-house and built a brick one di- 
rectly over the spring. Owingsville tradition 
says that Col. Thomas Dye O wings and Rich- 
ard Alenefee agreed that the future town 
should be named for the one who built the 
finest house on the clearing they had made 
Owings built a finer house than did Menefee 
and we consequently have "Owingsville" in- 
stead of "Menefeesville," as it might have been. 
Besides being the birth place of Richard H. 



FIRST YEARS 13 

Menefee, Owingsville was also the birth place 
of John Bell Hood (1831-1879), commander of 
the Army of the Tennessee, and author of "Ad- 
vance and Retreat," and William Lightfoot 
Visscher, the Kentucky poet, who was born the 
year after Menefee's death. 

In this competitive brick house Richard H. 
Menefee passed his first years. This house, 
which was torn down shortly after the civil 
war, was situated in the western part of 
Owingsville, fronting on Main street. To- 
day not a single brick remains to tell the his- 
torically inclined Kentuckian that here, nearly 
a century ago, the youngest of the three great 
Kentucky orators passed his first years. The 
spring from which Menefee drank for the first 
twelve years of his life is still flowing, and sup- 
plies a fish pond covering about one-eighth of 
an acre. Across the State another young Ken- 
tuckian, some months older than ^lenefee, was 
drinking water from a spring not as large as 
the Menefee spring, but the spring from which 
Abraham Lincoln drank has become associa- 
ated with his name, while the spring from 
which Richard H. Menefee drank is seldom 
mentioned in connection with his name. 

Menefee's mother's maiden name was Mary 
Lonsdale. She was born in Harford County, 
Maryland,' in 1788, and came to Kentucky 
\Yhen a young woman. She met Richard 
Menefee, who had just returned from the 
Kentucky House of Representatives, and, 
about 1806, in her eighteenth year, she mar- 
ried him. Their first-born children were twins, 
and were named Alfred and Alvin ]\Ienefee. 



^ Mrs. Dr. Robert Peter is my authority- for this statement. 



14 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEK 

They were born on September 29, 1807. They 
emigrated to Missouri in the early thirties and 
became farmers. Alfred Menefee married 
there and thirteen children were born to him. 
He was a consistent member of the Church of 
the Disciples for forty years. One of Mene- 
fee'3 letters to him is given in this book. 
He died in Perry, Ralls County, jMissouri, April 
26, 1895. Alvin Menefee died shortly after the 
civil war. 

The old Alenefee family Bible, which con- 
tained the register of the births of the five sons, 
has been lost. But Richard H. ]\Ienefee was 
undoubtedly the third son, and he left the rec- 
ord of his own birthday. The opening sen- 
tence of his Diary, which is dated December 4, 
1840, reads as follows: "My birthday 31 
years old." This statement settles all contro- 
versy in regard to the day of his birth. 

Another of his brothers, and probably the 
fourth-born son, was John INIenefee, who was 
shot in a duel with Alexander McClung at 
Vicksburg, ^lississippi, on December 29, 1838. 
The duel was fought with rifles at a distance of 
thirty paces, and Menefee was shot in the head 
at the second fire. He died a few days later. 
McClung was the challenger. 

The youngest son was Allen Menefee, who 
came into the world afflicted with infant par- 
alysis. Dr. Edward O. Guerrant, D. D., of 
Wilmore, Kentucky, remembers Allen Mene- 
fee as a small man, with blue eyes, sandy hair, 
and fair complexion — almost a double of Rich- 
ard H. Menefee. Before going to Missouri 
with his brothers, Alfred and Alvin ^Menefee, 
he was a frequent visitor at the home of Dr. 



First years 15 

Guerrant's father, Dr. H. S. Guerrant, in 
Sharpsburg, Kentucky. A letter that Menefee 
wrote when he was a member of Congress, to 
Dr. H. S. Guerrant, is preserved in this book. 

Thomas F. Marshall, in his eulogy on Mene- 
fee, said that Menefee supported an orphan sis- 
ter, but his father's will mentioned only Mene- 
fee and his four brothers. At this point in the 
eulogy Marshall begins to be historically faulty 
and continues to be so, with a few exceptions, 
to the end of his panegyric. 

1809, the year in which Menefee was born, 
is the annus niirahilis of the nineteenth century. 
In this "wonderful year" there was born the 
greatest group of men that appeared during 
the century. Tennyson, Poe, Holmes, Fitzger- 
ald, Lord Houghton, Gladstone, Darwin, 
Chopin, Mendelssohn, Blackie, Hunter, and 
many other distinguished men were born on 
both sides of the Atlantic. In Kentucky, Lin- 
coln, Edwards, Bledsoe, Mitchel, Steele, Kin- 
kead, and Carson, were all born during this 
year. 

The year is also famous for other things 
than the birth of great men. Mammoth Cave 
was discovered by the hunter Hutchins, and 
in Danville, Kentucky, Dr. Ephraim McDowell 
extirpated the ovary, which was the first o\)- 
eration of this kind that had ever been per- 
formed in the world. Washington Irving pub- 
lished the "Knickerbocker's History of New 
York" during this year, which marked the be- 
ginning of a national literature in America, 
lames Madison began his first term as the 
fourth President of the United States in March 
of this truly wonderful year. So it ma}- be 



l6 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

easily seen that Menefee was born at a time 
when the men of the world were doing great 
things. Of all the years of the past century in 
which a man of ambition could wish to be born, 
it seems to me that 1809 was the year. 

On the day that Menefee was born the Ken- 
tucky legislature, for that year, assembled at 
Frankfort. His father, Richard Menefee, as 
a Senator from Montgomery and Floyd Coun- 
ties, was, of course, at the seat of government, 
and was away from home at the time young 
Menefee came into the world. 

A young Virginian, Henry Clay, had come 
to Kentucky about a decade before the birth of 
Menefee and had been sent to the legislature 
in 1803-1804, and then to the United States 
Senate in 1806 to serve out the unexpired term 
of Gen. John Adair. In the winter of 1807 
Clay was the Speaker of the Kentucky House 
of Representatives, and in 1809 had been re- 
turned to the Senate to fill out the Hon. John 
Buckner Thurston's term, who had resigned. 

Menefee's mother, who has been described 
by the historian of Montgomery County^ as 
being a very beautiful and attractive woman, 
educated far in advance of the Kentucky 
women of her time, had no doubt heard of the 
young Virginian who was just at the begin- 
ning of a career that is unparalleled in Ameri- 
can historv. ]\Irs. Menefee was a devout Pres- 
byterian, and a member of the Rev. Joseph P. 
Howe's church. When Richard was quite 
young she had Howe baptize him, and when 
the good man asked the mother to "Name this 

^ Historical Sketches of Montgomery County, prepared by Rich- 
ard Reid. 1882. 



FIRST ye;ars 17 

child," she replied, "Henry Clay Menefee." 
This name young Menefee wore until the re- 
turn of his father from the Kentucky legisla- 
ture, in February, 1810. 

During the winter of 1809-1810, Richard 
Menefee served on the Committee of Proposi- 
tions and Grievances with Richard Hickman, 
who was the Senator from Clark and Estill 
Counties. He became very much attached to 
Hickman and roomed with him during the 
legislative session. The legislature adjourned 
on January 31, 1810, and on his return home 
Richard Menefee changed the name of the son, 
who up to that time he had never seen, from 
Henry Clay to Richard Hickman Menefee. 
American history, so far as I have been able to 
ascertain, does not afiford a parallel case to this 
incident in Menefee's early life. Gen. U. S. 
Grant and John Fiske had their Christian 
names juggled with, but not in the same man- 
ner in which Menefee had his changed. 

The man for whom he was finally named. 
Gen. Richard Hickman, was born in Cul- 
peper County, Virginia, on November 5, 1757, 
and died at his country home, "Cave Land," in 
Clark County, Kentucky, on July 3, 1832.' 
His education was meager, and on his arrival 
in Kentucky he became a farmer, and a few 
years later married Lydia Calloway (Irvine). 
She was a sister of the two Calloway girls who, 
with Jamina Boone, were captured by the 
Indians while boating on the Kentucky River. 

Hickman was Clark County's first repre- 
sentative in the Kentucky House of Repre- 

^ Lewis Family in America. 

2 



l8 RICHARD HICKMAN MENDB'EE 

sentatives, serving from 1793 to 1798. He was 
one of the Clark County members to the Sec- 
ond Constitutional Convention w^hich met at 
Frankfort in August, 1799, and w^hich was 
presided over by Alexander S. Bullitt, member 
from Jefferson County. Many distinguished 
men of early Kentucky history were members 
of this convention. The main objection to the 
first Kentucky Constitution of 1792 was the 
mode of choosing United States Senators and 
Governors. The second Constitution gave the 
election of United States Senators and Gover- 
nors to the direct vote of the people, and 
changed the time of holding elections from 
May to August. The office of Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor was created and President Bullitt was 
the first to fill it. The manner of voting was 
changed to a viva voce, which was continued 
for the next ninety years and was only changed 
by the fourth and present Constitution in 1891. 
This information in regard to the second Con- 
stitution is given here because it was the Con- 
stitution under which Menefee's life work was 
done, and because the knowledge of it will 
throw a flood of light on conditions as they 
existed in Kentucky during that period of our 
history. 

In 1812 Hickman was elected Lieutenant- 
Governor with Isaac Shelby, when the first 
Kentucky Governor was elected as the sixth 
Governor. During the year 1813 Shelby was 
compelled to take up his sword and go on the 
field of battle. During his absence Hickman 
acted as Governor of the Commonwealth. In 
1819 he was returned as a Senator from Clark, 
and served for the next four years. The last 



FIRST YEARS 19 

years of his life were spent on his beautiful 
"Cave Land," near Winchester, Kentucky 
Hickman was an old gentleman of tiie black 
stock, and a man whose name Menefee, no 
doubt, was proud to wear. 

When Richard H. Menefee' was about thir- 
teen months of age, or on January 15, 181 1, ihi- 
northeastern part of Montgomery was formed 
into Bath County — so named because of its 
medicinal springs. In October of the same 
year the town of Owingsville, situated on a 
high tableland, and commanding a splendid 
view of the surrounding country, was chosen 
as the county-seat of this new county of Bath. 
The first circuit court was held at the home of 
Capt. James Young in May, 1811, and three 
sessions of the court were held at his house. 
On the seventh of November, 1811, it was 
ordered that the next session of the court 
should be held at the brick residence of Rich- 
ard Menefee. Accordingly, on ]May 4, 1812, 
the court convened in Menefee's house, situ- 
ated over the spring. This court continued to 
meet at the Menefee home for the next four 
years, and was also held there three times after 
Richard Menefee's death. From the Menefee 
house it convened in the new Bath County 
court-house, which had been erected. 

Thomas Marshall thought that Menefee be- 
came a lawyer because he was inspired by the 
fact that he had at one time borne the name of 
Henry Clav. It is my opinion, however, that 
Menefee got his first law lessons from these 
crude courts which were held in his father's 
house, and that he liked the law and coolly and 

' Young's History of Bath County. 



20 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFED 

calmly, with his boyish logic, decided to be- 
come a barrister. Another influence that was 
probably brought to bear on young Menefee's 
decision to become a lawyer was exercised by 
Samuel T. Davenport, who was one of the first 
lawyers to hang out his shingle in Owingsville. 
Davenport was an educated lawyer for his day 
and genera'tion and he settled in Owingsville 
some time in 1811. He boarded with Richard 
Menefee, and at the building of the Menefee 
brick house, which was very pretentious 
for those days, Davenport wrote a poem 
on it. He was finally captured by the Indians 
and married a squaw by whom he had several 
children. That Davenport encouraged young 
Menefee to study law is almost certain. At 
any rate, I believe that Davenport and the 
backwoods court that was held in his father's 
house had more to do with making Richard H. 
Menefee decide to become a lawyer, than did 
the fact that he had, for several weeks, borne 
the name of Henry Clay. This fact did, no 
doubt, have some influence with his decision. 

In 1812 Richard Menefee's term as Senator 
from Monte^omerv and Flovd Counties was 
over, and he returned to his family. He was 
a man of action as well as a man of mind, and, 
after spending some months with his family, 
he was enlisted in Owingsville, on August 26, 
1813, as a soldier in the war of 1812, and ren- 
dezvoused at Newport, Kentucky, five days 
later. He was immediately elected captain of 
Company A in the regiment known as Col. 
John Donaldson's Kentucky Mounted Volun- 
teer Militia. Richard Menefee gallantly led 
his company at the battle of the Thames, which 



FIRST YEARS 21 

was fought on October 5, 1813. After the 
battle Donaldson's regiment was ordered to 
return to Kentucky, and Menefee was mus- 
tered out at Newport, Kentucky, on November 
4, 1813. He returned to his home in Owings- 
ville, and in the following year was elected as 
Bath County's representative in the Kentucky 
House of Representatives. 

During the year 1814, Louis Philippe, King 
of France, visited Bath County. He was the 
guest of Col. Thomas Dye Owings, and spent 
his time in hunting and fishing. The citizens 
of Bath called him "King Philip," and during 
the eighteen months which he spent in Bath, 
they became very much attached to him. The 
attachment was mutual as the French Govern- 
ment sent twice for him to return before he did 
so. He tried to persuade Colonel Owings to 
return to France with him, but Owings de- 
clined to do so. One can easily imagine the 
"Citizen King" patting young Menefee on the 
head and bestowing upon him the proverbial, 
"God bless you, my son." 

Richard Menefee died at his home in 0\v- 
ingsville, Kentucky, in August, 1815,' when his 
son was nearly six, and not "about four years of 
age," as Marshall said. In his will, which was 
written on August 18, and recorded in Septem- 
ber, 1815, Richard Menefee appointed his wife, 
with the assistance of two of his friends, Ed- 
ward and Robert Stockton, as his executors. 
He requested that his farm and tavern should 
be rented, but that the brick house over the 
spring should be kept as the family home. 
He gave to his wife one-third of his real estate 

^ Will Book A, in Bath County Clerk's Office. 



22 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

and to his cripple son Allen he gave a double 
portion of his estate. ^ He left to his sister-in- 
law, Patsy Lonsdale, who was an unmarried 
woman, an old negro servant named Caroline. 
By this gift Richard Menefee saved his wife's 
maiden name to Kentucky history, as he 
simply called her, in his will, "Mary." The 
slaves he left to his five sons, but they were not 
divided and sold until 1829. Richard Menefee, 
one of the founders of Owingsville, one of the 
wisest law makers of Kentucky's earlier years, 
and the father of one of the three great orators 
of Kentucky, sleeps to-day in an unknown 
grave. 

On October 24, 1819, when Menefee was 
nearly ten years of age, his mother married 
Col. George Lansdowne,^ who was for many 
years proprietor of the Olympian Springs, in 
Bath County, Kentucky. 

^ Marriage Record Book i, Bath County Clerk's Office. 



CHAPTER II 

EDUCATION 

The first twelve years of Richard H. Mene- 
fee's life were spent under his mother's watch- 
ful eye, and it is certain that she took the advice 
of the wisest man of antiquity, and brought up 
her child in the wav he should q:o. She also 
lived to see that he did not depart from it. His 
elementary education was received at her 
hands and, in the fall of 1821, in his twelftli 
year, he was sent to the preparatory school of 
Walker Bourne, and not to "a gentleman, 
whose name was Tompkins." JNlarshall de- 
scribed the characteristics of Menefee's 
teacher, but in some way got his name incor- 
rect. Perhaps the famous Kentucky orator 
and wit would ask, Juliet-like, "what's in a 
name?" In love a name is perhaps nil, but in 
history a name amounts to a great deal. Elo- 
quence and accuracy do not always go hand in 
hand. 

The first school in Montgomery County was 
opened in 1794, and taught by Robert Trimble,' 
who afterward became associate justice of the 
United States Supreme Court. He taught 
school the entire year, five days in the week. 
Trimble's school was located near the Spring- 
field church, which had been opened the same 
year that the school was founded, by Rev. 
Joseph P. Howe. A few years after Trimble 

'Historical Sketches of Montgomery County, prepared by 
Richard Ried. 1882. 



24 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

began to teach, Bourne opened his school in the 
same neighborhood. 

Walker Bourne was born on the banks of 
the Rapidan River, in Virginia, on May 5, 1790. 
He was brought to Kentucky at the age of 
seven years by his father, James Bourne, who 
was a Revolutionary soldier. Bourne served 
as a private soldier in Richard Menefee's com- 
pany at the battle of the Thames. He was 
also elected as a magistrate in Mt. Sterling, 
and was familiarly known as "Squire" Bourne. 
His reputation rests, however, on his ability 
as a teacher. For years he labored in the 
schoolroom and some of the State's most dis- 
tinguished men were, at some period of their 
lives, his pupils. He is the Kentucky Doctor 
Thomas Arnold. One of Bourne's most distin- 
guished pupils. Dr. Preston W. W. Hill, M. D., 
and one of Menefee's classmates, wrote an 
article on Menefee for the Kentucky Journal of 
Bducation,^ many years ago, in which he testified 
to the excellent influence that Bourne exer- 
cised upon Menefee. Dr. Hill said that 
Bourne was quick to see that Menefee had the 
stuff in him out of which a great man could 
be made, and he did everything to encourage 
him to study and to think. He would take long 
walks out into the country with Menefee, as 
Professor James Woodrow did with a young 
Georgian, many years later, and whom the lit- 
erary world loves as Sidney Lanier. He told 
Menefee of the arduous boyhood of nearly all 
the great Americans, how they had struggled 
with poverty and had overcome it. Bourne 

* Article in Mrs. Robert Harding's Scrap Book. Begun in 1863. 



EDUCATION 



25 



read to Menefee North's translation of "Plu- 
tarch's Lives," which undoubtedly encouraged 
the young Kentuckian to aim at greatness. 

Bourne used only three text-books in his 
school: Thomas Dilworth's Arithmetic and 
Speller and the King James Version of the 
Bible. Bourne was a Christian for nearly half 
a century and it is safe to say that his students 
were instructed in the principles of a catholic 
Christianity. He lived to see Menefee attain 
his fame, and also to have him testify, to Dr. 
Hill, after making one of his most brilliant 
speeches, that he was greatly indebted to his 
old teacher for his success. 

Richard H. Menefee's classmate that at- 
tained celebrity far in advance of any other of 
his classmates, was Henry Smith Lane, who 
was two years younger than himself. Lane 
attended Bourne's school until he was sixteen 
years of age, when he studied law and removed 
to Indiana. He began practice at Crawfords- 
ville, in 1837, and was sent to the legislature. 
In 1838 he was elected to the 25th Congress 
and served through the second regular session 
with Menefee. In Washington the two Ken- 
tucky schoolmates no doubt renewed their 
friendship, and must have passed many a 
happy hour talking over their boyhood school 
days spent at Bourne's school. Lane served in 
Congress until 1842, when Clay's defeat retired 
him from political life for the next sixteen 
years. He, like Menefee, was a Whig. In 1860 
he was elected Governor of Indiana, and a few 
months later he was elected to the United 
States Senate, where he served six years. Lane 



26 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

died in Crawfordsville, Indiana, June 11, 1881. 
'Over in Indiana, Lane used to tell the Hoosiers 
of the wonderful young Kentucky orator 
whose eloquence fascinated the people of his 
native State, and captured the 25th Congress. 

Two other of Bourne's pupils, although 
only one of them was Menefee's classmate, 
achieved greatness: Albert G. Harrison and 
John Jameison. Harrison left Bourne's school 
one or two years before Alenefee became a 
student there, and at the age of eighteen years 
entered Transylvania University at Lexington, 
where he graduated in the arts and in law. 
After a few years of practice at Alt. Sterling, he 
removed to Fulton, Missouri, and in 1837 was 
elected as a member of the 25th Congress — 
Menefee's Congress. In Congress Harrison 
made several good speeches on the public land 
question. He died in Fulton, Missouri, Sep- 
tember 7, 1839. 

Jameison, who was a student at Bourne's 
school at the same time that Menefee was a 
student there, emigrated to Missouri in 1825, 
and five years later was elected to the legis- 
lature, and served one term as Speaker of the 
House. In 1839 he was elected to Congress to 
serve out Harrison's term. After leaving Con- 
gress Jameison studied divinity and became a 
preacher in the Church of the Disciples.' He 
died in 1855 or 1856. 

Menefee's other classmate, Dr. Preston Hill, 
was a leading physician in Montgomery 

^ Article on Menefee by P. S. Kent, of Crawfordsville, in Mene- 
fee Scrap Book. 

"Judge Bay's "Reminiscences of the Missouri Bench and Bar." 
1878. 



EDUCATION 27 

County for many years, and wrote many valu- 
able articles on men of history. His article on 
Menefee, already referred to, brought out the 
fact that Marshall had Menefee's teacher's 
name wrong, which has also been noticed ; and 
a few weeks later, Reid's History of Montgom- 
ery County, a copy of which was found by 
the author in the great Wisconsin Historical 
Library, corroborated Hill's statement in this 
particular. 

Walker Bourne lived to see five of his "boys" 
become celebrated men: Menefee, Lane, Har- 
rison, Jameison and Hill. He died February 
6, 1873, in his eighty-third year. He was a 
Democrat and Harrison and Jameison ac- 
cepted his political faith, but Menefee and Lane 
became Whigs. 

Menefee completed his first year at Bourne's 
school with great credit to himself. In the 
summer of 1822 he probably labored in the 
fields of some friendly farmer, and in the fall 
of the same year returned to Bourne's school. 
'One day, in the latter half of his second year 
at Bourne's school, he came home and found 
his mother in tears. Inquiring for the cause of 
her sorrow he was told that she had been mis- 
treated by his step-father, and, seizing a carv- 
ing knife he made ready to repay the injury 
that Lansdowne had inflicted upon his mother. 
A relation, who happened to be in the house at 
the time, interfered and serious trouble was 
averted. This difficulty caused "the lion of his 
nature to first break out." 

Menefee now left the home of his mother, 



^L. V. Clement's speech on Menefee. Incident related by 
Menefee's widow. 



28 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFKE 

and at the age of fourteen years started out to 
face the cold and uncongenial world. I fancy 
that I can hear him pray the prayer that a Ken- 
tucky novelist of the present time put into the 
mouth of the ''Little Shepherd of Kingdom 
Come," when he, at the same age as Menefee, 
was turned out into the world: "God, I am 
nothing but a boy, but I have got to act like a 
man now !" 

Nothing else presenting itself, Menefee ac- 
cepted the position as bar-keeper at a tavern 
bar in Owingsville. This tavern was probably 
his father's old tavern which had been rented 
at his death. Here the young Kentuckian sold 
drinks at the prices fixed by the Bath County 
court, on April 1, 1811.^ He sold one-half pint 
of whiskey or peach or apple brandy at twelve 
and one-half cents, and one-half pint of French 
brandy or rum at fifty cents. He, no doubt, 
also assisted the tavern-keeper with his various 
duties, when there was nothing to do behind 
the bar. One night's lodging, supper, or 
breakfast cost sixteen and two-thirds cents; 
twenty-five cents was charged for dinner. 
Twelve and one-half cents was charged to keep 
a traveler's horse in the tavern barn over night, 
and the same amount was charged to let him 
graze, for twelve hours, in the tavern pasture. 
Richard H. Menefee and Patrick Henry are the 
only Americans that ever developed from bar- 
keepers into orators, within my knowledge. 

Although he was willing to stoop to con- 
quer, Menefee was not willing to occupy such a 
menial position during his entire life. So, after 
attending the bar for about one year, he gave 

^ Young's History of Bath County. 



EDUCATION 29 

it Up, and at the age of fifteen years became a 
teacher. It was not an uncommon thing for a 
district school teacher, of a half century ago, 
to be under sixteen years of age. He drilled 
the principles of arithmetic and spelling, as laid 
down by Thomas Dilworth and Noah Webster, 
and as he had learned them from Bourne, into 
his pupils in a vigorous manner. He received 
probably not as much money for teaching this 
school as for serving at the bar, but dauntlessly 
he taught it for one term and then went to Mt. 
Sterling, to live with his father's friend, Ed- 
ward Stockton.^ Menefee taught in Stockton's 
family and attended the ]\It. Sterling public 
school for over a year. Thus, by teaching and 
studying he prepared himself for the great 
Transylvania University which was located in 
Lexington, Kentucky. It was the foremost in- 
stitution of learning west of the Alleghenies. 

In September, 1826, when he was in his 
seventeenth year, Menefee went to Lexington 
and entered Transylvania University. He 
matriculated as an irregular student, we may 
be sure, because of the irregular manner of his 
preparation. Marshall is perhaps correct \yhen 
he said that Menefee entered Transylvania as 
an irregular junior. He was undoubtedly 
farther advanced in the humanities than he was 
in the sciences. Menefee is remembered, as he 
appeared on the streets of Lexington, by Mrs. 
Dr. Robert Peter, whose distinguished hus- 
band was professor of chemistry in the Tran- 
svlvania Universitv Medical School, as a very 



* Historical Sketches of Montgomery County, prepared by 
Richard Reid. 1882. 



3C RICHARD HICKMAN MENEE'EU 

bashful young fellow, dressed in jeans clothes 
that were probably made by his mother. 

The famous scientist, Constantine Samuel 
Rafinesque, had left Transylvania the year be- 
fore Menefee entered the University, but the 
most distinguished of the Transylvania presi- 
dents, Horace Holley, a Yale valedictorian and 
Unitarian minister of Boston, who had raised 
Transylvania from a high school to a leading 
American institution of learning, was presi- 
dent of the University at this time. The faculty 
consisted of four professors, besides President 
Holley. Rev. George T. Chapman occupied 
the chair of History, Geography, Chronology, 
and Antiquities; Thomas J. Matthews, A. M., 
was professor of Mathematics and Natural 
Philosophy; John Roche, A. M., occupied the 
chair of the Greek and T.atin languages. The 
other professor, Rev. Benjamin O. Peers, an 
Episcopalian minister, gave up his chair to be- 
come acting-president when Holley resigned.^ 

Menefee was required to pay thirty dollars 
tuition fee, and five dollars for the use of the 
library and other incidentals. He lived in the 
dormitory and ate at the refectory, the Uni- 
versity dining hall. Board and lodging were 
furnished him at one dollar and fifty cents per 
week, which was to be paid, as he stated in the 
letter to Lansdowne, quarterly. He was re- 
quired to furnish his own bed and bed-clothing, 
fire-wood, candles, and washing. Breakfast 
was served at seven o'clock from spring to fall, 
and from fall to spring at eight o'clock. Din- 

^ Dr. Peters's Historj' of Transylvania University, Filson Club 
Publication No. ii. 



Education 31 

ner was served at two o'clock, and supper at 
sunset/ 

The earliest extant letter of Menefee's was 
written to his stepfather, Col. Geor^^e Lans- 
downe, with whom he had become reconciled. 
It was written after he had been at the Uni- 
versity, several months, and is as follows: 

Lexington, December 30tli, 1826 

Dear Col : — I should be glad if you would inform 
me as soon as you can conveniently whether or not you 
intend that I should pay what remains of the money 
which I have to Mr. Brooks for boarding, or whether 
yourself and Mr. Brooks have arranged it vourselves. 
If you recollect, John Fletcher loaned me all the books 
which are necessary in College and thus far I have 
been obliged to purchase but one or two; Owing, 
however, to a different arrangement in the studies of 
the different classes all the books (excepting one or 
two) which I borrowed from Fletcher have become 
entirely useless ; those of them which are still neces- 
sary, he has sent for, and I shall be under the necessity 
of purchasing. I think it is very probable that I could 
sell all the books which I shall buy for almost the 
same sum for which I buy them. I have been obliged 
to be at far more expense than I expected to have been 
by getting shirts, shoes, etc. 

College will not be open for the students until Tues- 
day and I should like to hear your advice before that 
time. 

If you think it advisable I will either get the books 
and sell them again or keep them for Jackson ; / think, 
however, it would be advisable to dispose of them, as 
there is almost every year a change in books, though I 

^Transylvania Record Book from 1827-1839. 



32 RICHARD HICKMAN MEN^I^EK 

leave this entirely to your own wishes. My respects 
to Ma and the family. 

Yours with gratitude 

R. H. Menefee. 

N. B. The reason of my wishing to know the 
agreement of Mr. Brooks and yourself is that the 
boarders who are here at this time make quarterly 
payments ; and if I am also to do it, as I have been here 
three months, I should be about it. After getting a 
college receipt of $20, books and other necessaries I 
have yet remaining $22.50 which I shall expend in 
any manner you may advise. 

1 am anxious for an immediate answer as I am en- 
tirely at a loss how to act. R. H. M. 

The Mr. Brooks referred to in the letter was 
James A. Brooks, who bad charge of the Uni- 
versity refectory during the entire time that 
Alenefee was at Transylvania. "Jackson" was 
Andrew Jackson Lansdowne, Colonel Lans- 
downe's only son, born to him by his first wife. 
By Menefee's mother he had two daughters, 
one of whom married B. F. Tomlinson and the 
other one married Harrison Gill. Gill's daugh- 
ters have assisted in the preparation of this 
biography. 

President Holley' resigned on Monday, 
March 12, 1827, as he could not stand the cru- 
sade that had been waged against him. He 
was accused of being an atheist, deist, agnostic, 
all because he defined religion as the love of 
God and man. Holley had been elected as 
president of the University in 1818, and was 
warmly received at first ; but a year or two later 

' Peters's History of Transylvania University, Filson Club 
Publication No. 11. 



EDUCATION 33 

the crusade began and, although he fought it 
for a long time, he became discouraged, re- 
signed, and died of yellow fever some months 
later. He was one of the most eminent edu- 
cators that has ever been in Kentucky. 

Holley's resignation left the four professors. 
Chapman, Matthews, Roche, and Peers, in 
charge of the University. And, as has already 
been stated. Peers was chosen as acting presi- 
dent, and he presided over the affairs of the 
University until the Rev. Alva Woods 
became president in 1828. Woods had resigned 
as president of Brown University at Provi- 
dence, Rhode Island, to accept the presidency 
of Transylvania. Some months before he took 
charge of the University, Professor Chapman 
had resigned to cut down the expenses of the 
University, as it was in great financial trouble. 
Professor Matthews was giving one-third of 
his salary to Professor Roche, and as Peers was 
acting president, the entire faculty for Mene- 
fee's second year at the University consisted of 
only three professors — Matthews, Roche, and 
John Brown, A. M., who was principal of the 
Academy. 

A short time after Holley's resignation Rich- 
ard H. Menefee wrote a letter to his eldest 
brother, Alfred Menefee, which is dated five 
weeks before the time that is usually given as 
the day upon which Holley resigned. 2^Ienefee 
tells his brother of Holley's resignation and the 
appointment of Peers, and the action of the 
board of trustees. These different dates I have 
been unable to reconcile. 



34 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI'EE 

Lexington, February 6, 1827 
Dear Alfred, I have deferred writing so long, wish- 
ing to know whether or not the present continuance 
of the session would be changed. The trustees of the 
University met yesterday and contrary to the expecta- 
tions of all the students, the session was continued 
until the first of July. I had been expecting thus far 
to have gone home in March, for I can assure you, 
having been from home so long. I feel very much like 
seeing you all ; but as you see, by this change it will 
be impossible until the close of the session in July. — 
There has been considerable difficulty in selecting a 
president pro tern to fill the chair, after the resigna- 
tion of President Holley; they have after much con- 
fusion appointed a young man named Peers to act as 
president until the end of this session, when there is 
expected a president from the Eastward who will re- 
main permanently. Mr. Peers from what I have 
heard is a young man of fine talents, yet by no means 
equal to those of Dr. Caldwell who has been spoken 
of as president ; though for reasons which I have 
mentioned in a letter to Ma, he has been refused. 

I saw Dr. Paul in town some time since, on his way 
to Alabama; he appeared to be in very bad health, 
though he appeared confident of better health in a 
Southern climate; I heard the news of all the folks 
from him, which is the only time since Christmas. — 

As you intend coming to Lexington shortly, I 
should be very glad if you could come by the 22nd of 
this month, as it is probable there will be a recess of a 
few days. There is one thing, however, which I wish 
you to attend to : if you recollect in a letter to you a 
month or two since I informed you that on entering 
College I had to advance $20 for a college receipt for 
the session as it was then arranged viz. ending on 
the first of March, there being two sessions of five 
months each in the year; but now since it is altered 
to but one session consisting of nine months I shall 



EDUCATION 35 

have to advance the remaining- $20 on the first day of 
March, the tuition fees amounting to $40 per year. 
I wish you, Alfred, to attend particularly to the man- 
agement of this, and to relate the situation to the 
Colonel who will, I am confident, send me the money, 
if it be possibly in his power; but if he is in such a 
situation as to render it impossible without seriously in- 
juring himself, I would certainly not insist on it ; for al- 
though I should receive no greater mark of his friend- 
ship and should receive no more assistance from him 
than I already have, there is still sufficient to make 
me always his friend, and grateful for the interest and 
activity he has displayed in the completion of my edu- 
cation. I have already received far more than I could 
have reasonably expected; and if as I said, he is con- 
scious of his inability in his present circumstances to 
continue my education I leave it entirely to his own 
choice ; though for my own part, I had rather my edu- 
cation should be completed by him, who has expressed 
so great an anxiety for it. 

I have nothing more except my respects to all. 

Remaining at the same time your brother with af- 
fection, 

Richard H. MenEFEE. 

Mr. a. Meneeee. 

The reason of my saying this is, that T have been 
told by Dr. Paul and I believe the Colonel told me him- 
self, that through the dullness of the Virginia market, 
he had been forced to sell his stock on credit ; and as I 
know his calculations were different, he must neces- 
sarily be embarrassed at this time. — I do not wish by 
what I have said that you should take upon yourself 
any or at most, any considerable expense; because I 
know your situation will not allow it; But as you 
know my determination either to finish my education 
or spend the last four pence in the endeavor. I hope 
you, Alfred, will attend to it strictly.— If you find it 
impossible to come to Lexington by the last day of 



36 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

this month, I hope you will forward by mail about 
$25, since besides the College ticket of $20 I shall 
have to purchase more books having finished those I 
last bought. 

R. H. M. 

This second earliest extant letter shows 
Menefee to be, as did his first letter, anxious 
about financial matters. The Dr. Paul men- 
tioned in the letter was probably Mrs. Mene- 
fee's family physician. Alenefee's original 
punctuation, capitalization, and parac^raph 
structure have been retained in these two let- 
ters and will be retained in other letters that 
will be found in this book, and also in his 
speeches and diary. 

The two literary societies at Transylvania, 
at the time that Menefee became a student 
there, were the Union Philosophical and the 
Whig. Some time during his first year he 
joined the Union Philosophical and took a 
deep interest in the work. It is safe to say that 
this society was of more benefit to him than 
any one class he may have had. 

When the University closed in the summer 
of 1827, Menefee returned to his home and, we 
may be sure, spent the vacation period in work- 
ing on the farm and in reading whatever books 
that may have fallen into his hands. He prob- 
ably returned to Transylvania in the fall of 
1827 and matriculated as a full junior, having 
made tip his back work. I have examined the 
files of practically all of the Kentucky news- 
papers from 1826-1841 and in none of the com- 
mencement programmes, or in the old Tran- 
sylvania record book from 1827-1839, does 
Menefee's name appear as having received the 



EDUCATION yj 

Mfnefef rf ^''°' °^ f^^^' ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ that 
Menefee did receive the baccalaureate degree 
but Judge Kmkead is nearer the truth when he 
said, He went through the junior year at the 
University with the highest honor/' If Mene 

'828 h '''"^r^f '^ Transylvania in the fall of 
18^8 he would have graduated in Aug-ust 1829 
but the only bachelor's degree conferred in that 
year was upon George W. Johnson, who wa 
afterward a classmate of Menefe;'s in the 
Transylvania Law School. 

Aff qI^^i-^""^ of his junior year he returned to 
Mt. Sterling and, in the fall of 1828, if our con- 
clusions are correct, taught a school there for 
two years. One of his pupils was a young girl 
about fifteen years of age, whose name was' 
Sarah Bell Jouett. At the same time that he 
was teaching her the common school subjects 
he was also learning to love her. The affection 
was mutual, and about three years later she 
became his life companion. 

At the time that he was teaching this school 
there lived in Montgomery County a Scotch- 
Irishman, Josiah Davis. Every Friday after- 
noon, when the week's work was done, Mene- 
fee walked out to the Davis farm, which was 
located five miles from Mt. Sterling, and stayed 
with him until Monday morning in order to 
get the benefits of his library, which was one 
ofthe best in Kentucky at that time.^ It con- 
tained copies of Shakespeare and Burns. 
Scotchmen have always worshiped at the 
shrine of Burns and Davis was no exception. 
Here Menefee revelled in the mighty dramas 

incident ^^^^^ '^^^^' ^''^"^^°" °^ ^^V\s, is my authority for this 



3$ RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

of the king of all literature, and read of the 
many sweethearts and love lyrics of Scotland's 
greatest bard. 

In 1829 the commissioners of Menefee's 
father's estate divided and sold the slaves that 
Richard Mcnefee had left to his five sons.' 
Four of the boys, Richard H., Alfred, Alvin and 
John, each received two hundred and fifty-three 
dollars and sixty-six cents, while Allen, the 
cripple son, according to his father's will, was 
to receive twice as much as any of the others, 
and he therefore received five hundred and 
seven dollars and thirty-two cents. That 
Richard Menefee's sons received only two 
hundred and fifty dollars each from an estate 
which, at one time, comprised one-half of the 
land upon vv^hich Owingsville was built, simply 
shows that mismanagement was at work. 
Some one was responsible for the fact that 
Richard H. IMenefee received only a few 
hundred dollars from this vast estate. We now 
come to a very important step in Alenefee's 
career. 

*Will Book B, in Bath County Clerk's Office. 



CHAPTER III 
The: young i^awydr-poutician 

Menefee's second year as teacher of this 
little Mt. Sterling school was over in the early, 
summer of 1830, and, after having finally de- 
cided to become a lawyer, he began the study 
of law under Judge James Trimble, one of the 
early judges of Montgomery County, who at 
this time was the Commonwealth's Attorney 
for the eleventh judicial district. 

Trimble lives in Kentucky history, how- 
ever, as the law preceptor of Richard H. Mene- 
fee. Menefee spent the summer of 1830 study- 
ing Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Laws 
of England," Kent's and Story's Commen- 
taries, and the other law books that Trimble 
may have had in his library. 

Late in 1830 Menefee's friend, Edward 
Stockton, died, and if Marshall is correct he 
obtained a license to practice law and under- 
took, as his first law case, to settle up Stock- 
ton's estate, which was in a bad condition. He 
then began to practice regularly at the Mont- 
gomery bar, and during the spring and sum- 
mer of 1831 he took many cases before that 
court. 

That Menefee realized the need of having 
more systematic training in law than Trimble 
had been able to give him is certain, as he left 
Mt. Sterling and came to Lexington in Octo- 
ber, 1831, and entered the Transylvania Law 
School. This law school had been established 



40 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

when Transylvania University was founded, 
in 1799, and George Nicholas, author of the 
First Kentucky Constitution, was the first 
dean. It is the fourth oldest law school in 
the United States/ The Litchfield Law School 
of Connecticut, founded in 1784, is the oldest, 
with Columbia and the University of Pennsyl- 
vania following. Henry Clay was dean of the 
school in 1805. The school had been discon- 
tinued for a short time before Alenefee entered 
it, but now, under the leadership of Judge 
Daniel Mayes, it was as good as the Litchfield 
School, which was discontinued in 1833. The 
school beeran on the first Mondav in Novem- 
ber, and commencement was held on the hrst of 
the following iMarch. The fees were $35 per 
session, with $5 extra for use of text-books and 
law library. Moot courts were held on Satur- 
day. The course covered two years, but Mene- 
fee was given credit for the work he had done 
under Judge Trimble and permitted to enter 
the second year. The school began on Mon- 
day, November 7, 1831, and closed on Satur- 
day, March 3, 1832. 

On November 15, 1831, Governor Thomas 
Metcalfe, the eleventh Governor of Kentucky, 
nominated to the Kentucky Senate, for their 
advice and consent, the name of Richard H. 
Menefee, to succeed Judge Trimble, who re- 
signed as Commonwealth's Attorney for his 
district. The Senate confirmed Governor Met- 
calfe's selection and Menefee was therefore 
elected as the fourth Commonwealth's Attor- 
ney of the eleventh judicial district. Menefee 
had been appointed since the adjournment of 

^Dexter's History of Education in United States. 



THK YOUNG IvAWYER-POUTlCIAN 41 

the legislature in January, 1831, and had there- 
fore been acting as the attorney for the Corn- 
wealth for some months before he came to 
Lexington to enter the Law School. Trimble 
probably looked after his duties when Mene- 
fee left them to make a more thorough study 
of law. 

As all of the Kentucky historians have re- 
corded Judge Mayes's life with many inaccu- 
racies, I wrote to his son, Judge Edward 
Mayes, of Mississippi, the biographer of 
Lamar, asking him to prepare a sketch of his 
distinguished father, especially for this book, 
and the following sketch is based on the infor- 
mation that he sent me. 

Daniel Mayes was born in Dinwiddie 
County, Virginia, on February 12, 1792. His 
father, Robert C. Mayes, married Agnes T. 
Locke, a .descendant of a brother of John 
Locke, author of the "Essay on the Human 
Understanding." Robert C. Mayes removed 
from Dinwiddie County when Daniel was two 
years of age, to Lexington, Kentucky, but 
after a short stay then settled permanently in 
Christian County, Kentucky. 

Daniel Mayes was reared and educated in 
Christian County and began the practice of 
law there. Toward the close of the war of 
1812 he enlisted in the Kentucky troops but 
saw no active service. In 1817 he married 
Cynthia Bowmar, daughter of Herman Bow- 
mar, of Versailles, Kentucky. The following 
year he was the editor of the Hopkinsville 
Western HeniispJiere. He was the only editor in 
Kentucky who opposed the organization of 
State banks. In 1825 he represented Christian 



42 RICHARD HICKMAN MENIFEE 

County in the legislature, and about 1828 was 
elected Circuit Judge. He became dean of 
Transylvania Law School in the fall of 1830, 
and when Menefee entered the school Mayes 
was serving his second year as dean. His 
wife died in 1831, and two years later he mar- 
ried Elizabeth Riggs Humphreys, of Fayette 
County, the widow of Hon. Chas. W. Hum- 
phreys. 

In June, 1838, Alayes resigned as dean of the 
law school and moved to Jackson, Mississippi, 
where he practiced his profession. In politics 
he was an ardent Henry Clay Whig, and he 
instilled, no doubt. Whig principles into the 
mind of Alenefee in a way that they had never 
been before. When Clay visited Alississippi 
Mayes delivered the address of welcome at 
Jackson. 

In 1845 he was defeated for Attorney-Gen- 
eral of Alississippi, and five years later was 
elected lecturer on the common law in the 
University of Louisiana Law School, and he 
removed to New Orleans, where he also prac- 
ticed. He did not like New Orleans and after 
two years there he returned to Jackson, where 
he resided until his death, which occurred from 
pneumonia, February 6, 1861. He left children 
by both marriages and has many descendants 
in Mississippi. 

Henry S. Foote in his "Bench and Bar of 
the South and Southwest" and also Lynch's 
"Bench and Bar of ^Mississippi," eulogizes 
Mayes as a lawyer and as a man. 

Judge William B. Kinkead, who was a mem- 
ber of the first-year class, in a sketch of Mene- 
fee, gives the following account of Menefee's 



THE YOUNG I^AWYDR-POUTICIAN 43 

• 

first night at the Law Society: ''When Mene- 
fee joined the law class he was unknown to 
most of the members. My attention was first 
called to him on the evening of the meeting of 
the debating society. He took his seat in a 
retired part of the room. The debate pro- 
gressed some time. He was silent. A mem- 
ber went to him and proposed that he should 
take part in the debate. When an opportunity 
offered, he arose, and in a calm, deliberative 
way proceeded to discuss the question, and 
that speech stamped him at once as the lead- 
ing debater of the class." 

On Saturday, March 3, 1832, twelve young 
gentlemen, all natives of Kentucky, were 
graduated from the Transylvania Law School 
with the L. B. degree:^ James W. Allen of 
Shelby County and William C. Bullock of 
Shelbyville; J. W. Andrews of Mason County 
and Jos. W. Bashaw of Henry County; Her- 
man Bowmar, Jr., of Versailles and William N. 
Bullitt of Louisville; Richard F. Richmond of 
Frankfort and William J. Steele of Woodford 
County; Larkin B. Smith and George W. 
Johnson of Lexington; Oscar White of Paris 
and Richard H. Menefee of Alt. Sterling. 

Of these eleven classmates of Menefee's the 
one that afterward became more distinguished 
than any of the others was George W. John- 
son. Johnson was born near Georgetown, 
Kentucky, May 27, 1811, and was a tutor for 
some time in Transylvania University before 
his graduation in law. After graduating he 
returned to Georgetown, where he practiced 
law for a short time, but finally gave it up for 

^Transylvania University Record Book, 1827-1839. 



44 



RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^KS 



agricultural pursuits in Kentucky and Arkan- 
sas. He represented Scott County in the Ken- 
tucky legislature from 1838 to 1840. At the 
beginning of the civil war he labored earnestly 
to place Kentucky in the Confederacy, but in 
September, 1861, he went South in Gen. 
John C. Breckinridge's command. He re- 
turned from the South some weeks later and 
finally succeeded in getting representatives 
from sixty-five Kentucky counties to meet at 
Russellville, in Logan County, from November 
10th to the 21st, and a constitution was formed 
for a provisional government. Bowling Green 
was chosen for the seat of government and 
Johnson was chosen Governor. The Confed- 
erate Congress admitted Kentucky on Decem- 
ber 10 as a Confederate State. 

Johnson returned to the battlefield and was 
mortally wounded at Shiloh on April 7, 1862, 
and died two years later. He was the only Gov- 
ernor, either from the North or South, that fell 
in battle during the civil war. 

Another of Menefee's classmates, William 
J. Steele, was born a few months before Mene- 
fee. The year after his graduation he re- 
moved to Alabama, and engaged in the prac- 
tice of law with Governor Metcalfe's son. 
Steele returned to Kentucky in 1852 and served 
for a number of years as judge of the Wood- 
ford County Court. He died in 1886. He was 
a very impulsive man and very sympathetic. 

Of the other members of the class, Bashaw, 
Bullock, and Smith represented their respective 
counties in the Kentucky legislature for one 
term each. Richmond practiced law at Frank- 
fort with Benjamin F. Hickman for a number 



The; young lawyiir-powtician 45 

of years, and married his daughter, who was 
the most noted beauty of her time. He was 
unhappy with her, however, and late in hfe 
removed to Missouri, where he finally died. 

William N. Bullitt gave up the law after 
graduating and became a merchant. Of the re- 
maining members of the class, Allen, Andrews, 
Bowmar, and White, not enough has been 
found out to warrant a record of it in this 
book. 

Immediately after his graduation, Richard 
H. Menefee returned to Mt. Sterling, where he 
again took up his duties as Commonwealth's 
Attorney for the eleventh judicial district. 

Professor Mayes began another session of 
the law school on the first Monday in April, 
and continued it for six months. Menefee did 
not stay for this session, but returned to the 
school for some special work about three years 
later. 

One of the members of the first-year class 
that Menefee became intimate with was Rich- 
ard Pindell (1812-1870). Pindell was in the 
Kentucky House of Representatives in 1838, 
and was one of the most prominent young men 
of his day. 

After the school was over Pindell went East 
on an extended visit. He wrote to Menefee of 
the public men that he had seen in Baltimore 
and Washington and Menefee wrote him the 
following letter in reply, May 19, 1832, ad- 
dressed to him while he was in Baltimore. 

Dear Pindell : — 

I received with great pleasure your letter of the 5th 
May. It gave me an account of matters with which I 



46 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

am perhaps as little acquainted as any person in the 
country. The parts of it which describe and compare 
the respective talents of our public characters were 
especially interesting to me. In this latter particular 
I must ask you to make as minute and as just observa- 
tions as you can and I shall expect you to communicate 
to me the result of them, \\nien I consider your emi- 
nent capacity to hate as well as admire I shall of course 
not calculate on infallibility in your opinions. And in 
your description of their persons. I shall be inclined 
from imperfection of your physical siq'ht to tolerate 
almost any inaccuracy. But recollect that I concede 
no such excuse for your intellectual vision with re- 
spect cither to its perfection or its extent and I shall 
accordino-ly expect a close approximation to truth in 
the description of character. Nor, have I any fear of 
disappointment. 

I am a little apprehensive that you are disposed to 
reg^ard the men and affairs around you with too severe 
an eye. I think it probable that a younq- man trans- 
lated at once from retirement and the contemplation 
of government and its theoretical administration to 
the great center of power and the practical exercise 
of it. is exposed in some degree to erroneous impres- 
sions. He necessarilv discovers a multitude of de- 
partures from the purity he had thought himself en- 
titled to expect, and his error most frequently consists 
in attaching too much consequence to these departures 
not remembering that the wisdom and virtue of our 
public characters are but those of frail man. and that 
all theories committed to the hands of men for prac- 
tical display suffer greatly in their purity by the opera- 
tion. 

I fear, however, that after making every state- 
ment that either these or any other causes, or even 
charity itself could claim, your representation is lam- 
entably correct. And if so. I am not at all surprised 
that you should somewhat regret your visit to Wash- 



The young IvAwyer-poIvITician 47 

ington — as having been the means of bringing you to 
the knowledge of a very painful tho undoubtedly an 
important truth. I cannot fail to admire the spirit 
that blazes at even the suspicion of corruption, if it 
were merely suspicion ; but I must repeat to you what 
we all joined in recommending to Riley on the famous 
occasion alluded to by you — be moderate. — 

Having thus performed the modest task of advising 
him who is to sit in judgment over the Executive and 
Legislative functionaries of the Nation, I proceed to 
the more, humble but not less pleasant task of telling 
you that I shall be in Lexington at the races on the 
24th, where I shall expect to see many of our fellow 
soldiers, and only regret that you will not be amongst 
them. I calculate on great pleasure from a visit of 
this kind. Indeed, I regard it as one of the most im- 
portant of my last winter's acquisitions, that my inter- 
course with the Law class has contributed in a very 
high degree towards making me a gregarious animal, 
to which I thought for a long time I was constitution- 
ally averse. In fact, Dick, with due and my accus- 
tomed modesty, I say it, I am as social and practical 
a man as you could desire to see. 

Write to me about everything from the fate of the 
Republic down to Amos Kendall, always re- 
membering that the visible enters largely into my 
philosophy. 

With the highest regard. 

Your friend and ob't servant 

Rich'd H. Mene^EE 

R. PiNDELL, Esq. 

In the early part of August, Menefee came 
to Lexington to claim his pupil-sweetheart 
as his wife. At the Jouett residence, about 
two miles from Lexington,' on the 14th day 

^ Register in the old Jouett family Bible. 



48 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

of August, 1832, Sarah Bell Jouett was united 
in marriage to Richard Hickman Menefee. 
Rev. Nathan H. Hall, pastor of the First Pres- 
byterian Church and the most powerful 
exhorter that has appeared in the Presbyterian 
Church in Kentucky, performed the ceremony. 
Martha B. Mitchell, who afterward became the 
wife of Oliver Frazer, was the maid of honor. 
After the ceremony the happy couple went 
back to Mt. Sterling to live, where ]\Ienefee 
had provided a home. 

Sarah Bell Jouett, the second child and eldest 
daughter of Alatthew Harris Jouett, the most 
distinguished painter that Kentucky has given 
to the world, was born on April 2, 1815, and 
was therefore nearly six years younger than 
her husband. When LaFayette visited Lex- 
ington in 1825 she and Martha Mitchell pre- 
sented him with a basket of fruit and in return 
received the blessing of the great Frenchman. 
Menefee and his wife were married sweet- 
hearts for nearly a decade, when his death 
separated them. About a qtiarter of a cen- 
tury after his death, Mrs. Menefee returned 
to Mt. Sterling on a visit, and the older people 
of the town gathered around her and talked 
with her of the man whom they idolized. She 
was a noted conversationalist and had an ex~ 
cellent memory. Like the wives of Clay, 
Davis, Jackson, Breckinridge, Polk and many 
other great Americans have done, Mrs. Mene- 
fee survived her 'husband man}^ years — over a 
half century. She died in Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, December 13, 1898. 

On January 28, 1833, Governor John Breath- 
itt, wlio had been elected in August, 1832, 



THE YOUNG I.AWYER-POLITICIAN 49 

sent Menefee's name to the State Senate again 
for their vote of confirmation as Common- 
wealth's Attorney for the eleventh judicial dis- 
trict. The law creating the office of Common- 
wealth's Attorney was first enacted in 1813, 
and it laid down three rules, by the observance 
of which a man could hold the office: that his 
behavior must be good; the court must be con- 
tinued; and, of course, his office must be con- 
tinued. The committee, composed of Ben 
Hardin, the famous Kentucky lawyer, and 
others, decided that Menefee's behavior had 
been good and the court before which he prac- 
ticed and his office had both been continued. 
The law of 1813 did not place a time limit on 
any of the attorneys, one man having served 
for ten years, therefore Menefee was entitled 
to keep his office. As all of Breathitt's prede- 
cessors in the executive chair had continued 
the attorneys in office, it clearly seems that the 
twelfth Kentucky Governor was not informed 
in regard to the law. 

On February 8, Menefee and his wife 
entered into a playful contract, drawn up by 
Menefee, in his own handwriting, in regard to 
rising early in the morning. The contract is 
given under the respective seals, and they both 
agreed that the mind and body are seriously 
impaired by sleeping late; that they were de- 
sirous of correcting their habits in this par- 
ticular; that they each had the strongest of all 
interests in the preservation of the mind and 
health of the other; now they had agreed that, 
from and after this time they will rise early (at 
all events, ill health and Sundays excepted, by 
4 ■ 



50 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

sun-rise), and if either of said parties should 
violate said contract, such violation should 
mean a penalty, to be paid to the other, 
amounting to one dollar. 

Menefee's mother died on June 21, 1833, at 
the age of forty-six years, and was buried at 
the famous Olympia Springs. Menefee's grief 
w^as terrible and he was inconsolable for some 
time. He literally worshiped his mother, and 
thought her to be "the smartest and best 
woman God ever made.'" 

Menefee's stepfather. Col. George Lans- 
downe, died on October 3, 1851, and a beauti- 
ful monument marks the spot where he and 
the mother of Menefee sleep, side by side, in 
the cemetery at Olympia Springs. 

From Mt. Sterling, on August 11, 1833, 
Menefee wrote the following letter to his wife, 
who was probably visiting at her father's 
home, near Lexington. The opening para- 
graph has been eliminated because of its af- 
fectionate tone. About forty of jNIenefee's let- 
ters to his wife are extant and they show him 
to be a very delightful fellow indeed. 

Mt. Sterling, nth Aug. 1833. 

************ 

I labor to persuade myself that an absence like the 
present one ought not to be regarded, that you are 
not far from me and that I shall soon see you. It 
is in vain a feeling of gloom comes over me that I can 
but seldom resist. This may be owing to some secret 
contemplation of my circumstances which render my 
absence necessary. Why have I not command of my 
time? Why is it that I am compelled to drag myself 

^ Mrs. Menefee's letter, February i8, 1898, to Mr. Clements. 



THE YOUNG lyAWYER-POUTlCIAN 5 I 

from (I might say) a sick wife? But all such reflec- 
tions I am soon ashamed of. I would not be rich this 
moment if I could be so; that is, for my own sake, I 
would not be rich. I wish to pass through the wis- 
dom-imparting paths, and scenes that lead a man to 
wealth. I wish my powers called forth in pursuit ; so 
that when a few years shall have given me wealth, I 
may be found in possession of a high fame — acquired 
in the pursuit of it. Practical wisdom grows out of a 
practical intercourse with man; an intercourse to 
which one must be in fact a party. Not an occasional 
participation in the common affairs of man, but con- 
stant and from necessity. It is certainly desirable that 
all conditions of life should, if possible, be understood ; 
the highest and the lowest. No condition can be thor- 
oughly comprehended and realized unless we are 
actually parties to it. It is obvious that in under- 
standing these various conditions of life by experi- 
ence — it is the most rational as well as the most ad- 
vantageous to begin with the humblest. All nature — • 
everything — proceeds in this way. Besides, it but 
seldom occurs that he who from a high has been pre- 
cipitated by misfortune or otherwise to a low condi- 
tion, can preserve sufficient philosophy to profit by the 
experience which his new condition might supply him. 
He will not observe; he is apt to regard himself as 
lost. But if a young man can be convinced in the 
outset of life that obsei*vation and reflection upon men 
and manners are all important to him in his ulterior 
plans; if he can once contract a habit of observation. 
I consider him in the highway to success in any pur- 
suit he may choose to adopt — I have been led to believe 
that many, very many, who have the most sufficient 
capacity to observe and reflect, pass through a life- 
time of facilities without doing so. merely because 
they have never thought of it. It will appear forcibly 
to any who choose to make the experiment, how many 
opportunities we forego by remissness, if he will go 
into a company with the express view of making ob- 



52 RICHARD HICKMAN ME^NEFEE 

servations. He will see and reflect upon a thousand 
things which he otherwise would never have noticed; 
thing's, too, that may shed a volume of light upon the 
character either of ourselves or others. It is a most 
happy position to sit in the midst of actors of every 
kind governed and wafted about by emotions of all 
descriptions — you an independent, and to them an un- 
known observer ; prying, as it were, unseen, into their 
hearts. 

I set out to write a love letter and find I have 

written a moral essay — I am prettv much of a d 

fool. 

On October 27, 1833, Menefee's first child 
was born, a son, and he was named Alexander 
Hamilton Menefee. Richard H. Menefee, like 
another distinguished Kentuckian, Gertrude 
Atherton, believed that Hamilton was the 
greatest of our statesmen. He placed him 
above Washington, Jefiferson, or any of the 
other illustrious founders of our Republic. 

Menefee's joy was to be ephemeral, for on 
December 6, 1834, his son died. But a few 
years later he was given a son who was to 
perpetuate his name and carry on his tradi- 
tions. 

The catalogue of the Transylvania Law 
School for January, 1835, shows that Menefee 
was again in attendance at the school, prob- 
ably doing some special work. A mistake oc- 
curred in the catalogue by which his middle 
name was abbreviated with a "B" instead of 
with an "H." The catalogue also shows that 
he was still living in Mt. Sterling, and the L. B. 
which he had won three years before was 
printed after his name. 

The famous Kentucky Chief Justice, George 



THE YOUNG LAWYER-POUTICIAN 53 

Robertson was assisting Professor Mayes in 
the school at this time. Joshua F. Bell, of 
Danville, who was afterward one of the six 
Kentucky Commissioners to the Washington 
Peace Conference of 1861, and Lazarus W. 
Powell, of Henderson, afterward the twentieth 
Governor of Kentucky, were matriculates of 
the school during the time that Menefee was 
there. 

Menefee returned to Mt. Sterling, where he 
continued to practice and attend to his duties 
as Commonwealth's Attorney for his dis- 
trict. Some time in the winter of 1835-1836 
he sent his resignation to Governor James T. 
Morehead, who had become Governor at the 
death of Breathitt, which occurred February 
21, 1834, as Commonwealth's Attorney for the 
eleventh judicial district, and announced him- 
self as a candidate for the Kentucky Flouse of 
Representatives, from Montgomery County, 
to succeed David Heron and James McKee. 
His candidacy was received favorably by his 
people, and he, with Gen. Samuel L. Williams, 
who had been at the battle of River Raisin, and 
who was to serve for nearly a quarter of a 
century in the legislature, were sent as dele- 
gates from Montgomery County to the State 
Convention of Kentucky Whigs, which met 
in Lexington on April 19, 1836. 

Judge John Green,' of Lincoln County, who 
had studied law under Henry Clay and who 
was a prominent circuit judge for many years, 
was chosen as president of the convention. 
Five vice-presidents and five secretaries were 

* Lexington Observer and Kentucky Reporter for April 27, 
1836. 



54 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

then appointed and the convention got down 
to business. 

Green's first appointment was to select a 
committee of fifteen men to propose suitable 
resolutions of Whig- principles for the consid- 
eration of the convention. Tlie secretaries 
were appointed to ascertain and report to the 
convention the names of the delegates in at- 
tendance and the counties that they repre- 
sented. Such prominent Kentuckians as Gar- 
rett Davis of Bourbon, Richard Hawes of 
Clark, Leslie Combs, Edwin Byrant, Charl- 
ton Hunt, and the Wicklift"es of Fayette, Rob- 
ert P. Letcher of Garrard, Cassius M. Clay 
from Madison, John B. Thompson from Mer- 
cer, and AX'illiam B. Kinkead from Woodford 
County, were present. 

Clay took a prominent part in the delibera- 
tions of the convention. Llis first motion was 
that a committee of thirteen should be ap- 
pointed to report a plan for the complete union 
of the Kentucky Whigs in the coming August 
elections. His motion was adopted. The con- 
vention then went into a committee of the 
whole with a view of adopting such measures 
that would insure harmony in the ranks of the 
Whigs of Kentucky. Through its chairman 
ft resolved to raise a committee of general 
consultation to consist of as many members 
from each county represented in the conven- 
tion as such coimty may have representatives 
in the State legislature. It was further re- 
solved that the county delegates appoint the 
member or members of said committee for 
each county, whose duty it shall be to ascer- 
tain the public sentiment of their respective 



THE YOUNG IvAWYER-POUTlCIAN 55 

counties by conference with their colleagues 
in the convention now assembled. And said 
committee is ordered to report upon such sub- 
jects as it shall deem proper to the conven- 
tion. It was further provided that each county 
represented in the convention have at least one 
member upon the committee. For Fayette 
County, Charlton Hunt, Judge A. K. Wooley 
and Robert Wickliffe, Jr., were appointed to 
serve on the committee, and from Montgom- 
ery County General Williams and IMenefee 
were appointed, with many others. 

As a second resolution the chairman of the 
committee thought it expedient for the con- 
vention to recommend to the people a suitable 
person for Vice-President of the United States. 
Both resolutions were adopted and the conven- 
tion adjourned until the next day. 

At the beginning of the second session of 
the convention. President Green read letters 
from James Clark and Charles Wickliffe, say- 
ing that, although they had been nominated 
by the legislature for Governor and Lieuten- 
ant-Governor, if the convention did not sanc- 
tion the legislature's action they would with- 
draw. 

General Williams, Menefee's colleague, of- 
fered a resolution that Gen. William H. Har- 
rison for President, Francis Granger for Vice- 
President, James Clark for Governor and 
Chas. A. Wickliffe for Lieutenant-Governor, 
be recommended by the convention to the 
people of Kentucky as suitable persons 
for the positions. His resolution was 
unanimously concurred in, and he then moved 
that a committee of four be appointed to notify 



156 RICHARD HICKMAN MEN^I^EE 

Clark and Wickliffe of the convention's action. 
Gen. Leslie Combs, with General Williams and 
two other gentlemen, were appointed by Green 
as a committee of notification. 

The services of Acting-Governor IMorehead 
and of United States Senator Henry Clay were 
commended. After the adoption of a resolu- 
tion to the effect that the Harrison committee 
of Louisville be requested to combine their 
labors to promote the Whig cause in Ken- 
tucky, in co-operation with the Central com- 
mittee of Lexington, and "a committee ap- 
pointed to see that the business transacted by 
the convention be printed, the convention ad- 
journed, sine die, and Menefee went back to 
Mt. Sterling to begin an active campaign for 
the legislature. That he spoke at every corner 
and cross-roads of Montgomery County is cer- 
tain. Although the name of his opponent for 
the legislature is lost to history we may be sure 
that the Van Buren Democrats put up the 
strongest man in Montgomery against the 
young Whig, who was just at the beginning 
of his career. Practically all of the Kentucky 
newspapers were at this time devoted to the 
Whig cause, and, of course, did not give the 
name of Menefee's opponent. Kentucky at 
one time in her history had a Secretary of State 
who could not see that the election returns for 
1836 might be valuable for a historian of that 
period, and he destroyed them as so much rub- 
bish. Surely the State's foremost novelist is 
right when he said : "Write the biographies of 
the Kentuckians who have been engaged in 
national and local politics, and you have 
largely the history of the State of Kentucky. 



THE YOUNG IvAWYER-POUTlCIAN 57 

Write the lives of all its scientists, artists, 
musicians, actors, poets, novelists, and you 
find many weary milestones between 'the 
chapters." Or, as Bishop A. Coke Smith said: 
"The Southern people are the greatest history 
makers that have ever lived upon the earth, 
but are the poorest history preservers that the 
sun has ever shone upon." Both of these state- 
ments I have found to be too true. 

The candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, 
Charles A. Wickliffe, spoke in Mt. Sterling on 
Monday, July 4, and at Owingsville on the fol- 
lowing day. He was probably introduced by 
Menefee to the people of the two towns, or, at 
any rate, delivered a speech at the conclusion 
of WickliftVs. 

In 1835 the second Seminole war broke out 
and was waged on the Southwestern frontier. 
Maj.-Gen. Edward P. Gaines was in command 
of the United States troops, and the famous 
Seminole warrior, Osceola, was leading the 
Indians. The war was caused by the Indians 
breaking a treaty with the Government by 
which they had promised to give up their lands 
and move to Indian Territory. This war con- 
tinued until 1842 and was the fiercest Indian 
war in which the United States was ever en- 
gaged. 

In the summer of 1836 it was ar its highest 
point, and on July 16 Governor Morehead is- 
sued a proclamation, at the request of Presi- 
dent Jackson and General Gaines, calling for 
1,000 mounted Kentuckians to rendezvous at 
Frankfort on August 17 to proceed to Camp 
Sabine. Before August 3, forty-five companies 
offered their services, but only ten were ac- 



58 RICHARD HICKMAN M^NEFEE 

cepted, composed of one hundred men each. 
The company raised in ^lontgomery County 
elected Richard 11. Menefee as their captain, 
hut as only a thousand men were needed, and 
as ten companies reached Governor Morehead 
before Menefee's did, his company was refused. 
Although he was making a bitter light for a 
position that would require a man of mind, he 
was, like his father, ready to become a man of 
action. 

Governor Morehead appointed Gen. Leslie 
Combs, of Fayette County, as colonel of the 
Kentucky regiment, but before he got his com- 
mand ready to march, orders were received for 
their discharge. General Combs assured his 
regiment that they should have pay for their 
loss of time, and a resolution was passed by 
the legislature on December 7, 1836, asking 
the Kentucky Congressmen to use their in- 
fluence to obtain the pay for the Kentucky 
troops that had been raised for the second 
Seminole war. Although they saw no active 
service they had suffered a loss of time from 
their various duties. 

On August 3 the election began and, accord- 
ing to the second Kentucky Constitution, con- 
tinued three days. The Kentucky Gazette for Au- 
gust 8 announced Menefee's election as rep- 
resentative from Montgomery County to the 
next legislature. Although Montgomery 
County thus gave Menefee, a Whig, a large 
majority, they elected a Van Buren man as 
State Senator, Aquila Young. It would seem 
as if those sturdy Montgomery County farm- 
ers were, even at that early date, voting for the 
man and not for the ticket. They offer one of 



THS YOUNG LAWYDR-POLITICIAN 59 

the earliest examples of the "independent" 
vote in Kentucky history. 

Clark and Wickliffe were elected by large 
majorities, and forty-six Whig representatives 
were elected to the House of Representatives 
against twenty-three Van Buren Democrats. 

On August 31 Clark and Wickliffe were in- 
augurated as Governor and Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The 
inauguration took place in the hall of the 
House of Representatives, and Charles S. 
Morehead delivered the address of welcome on 
behalf of the citizens of Frankfort, and both 
Clark and Wickliffe made speeches in reply, 
assuring the people that they would preside 
over the destinies of Kentucky as God showed 
them the way, Kentucky, too, was just on 
the eve of a financial panic which was to con- 
tinue for the next five years. 



CHAPTER IV 

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 

Late in November, Menefee, in company 
with his wife, left his home in Mt. Sterhn^, and 
arrived in Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, 
to discharge those legislative duties which were 
before him, and which the people of Montgom- 
ery had elected him to perform. 

The Kentucky legislature convened in 
Frankfort on Alonday, December 5, 1836/ 
The Senate was called to order by Lieutenant- 
Governor Charles A. Wickliffe, and the House 
was called to order by Thomas J. Helm, former 
clerk. A quorum was present and the election 
of a Speaker was immediately gone into. 
Christopher Tompkins, Jr., of Barren County, 
nominated Robert P. Letcher, of Garrard, for 
Speaker, and Thomas J. Riley, of Bullitt, nomi- 
nated John L. Helm, of Hardin County. Helm 
was elected by a vote of forty-eight to forty- 
five. Menefee voted for Letcher. Helm took 
the Speaker's chair and returned his thanks for 
the honor that had been conferred upon him. 
Thomas J. Llelm was elected Clerk of the 
House and messages were then interchanged 
between the Senate and Llouse, saying that 
both bodies were ready for legislative busi- 
ness. 

The leading legislative lights of the session 
of 1836-1837 were, in the Senate, men like 
Archibald Dixon, of Henderson, Henry Clay's 

* House Journal for 1836-1837. 



IN The; Kentucky lkgislature 6i 

successor in the United States Senate in 1852; 
James Guthrie, of Louisville, Secretary of the 
Treasury under Franklin Pierce ; Samuel Han- 
son, one of the most distinguished lawyers that 
Clark County has ever produced; Thomas 
Metcalfe, of Nicholas, the eleventh Governor 
of Kentucky, and Aaron K. Wooley, a re- 
now^ned jurist of Fayette County. In the 
House, we find men like Menefee, Rob- 
ert Wickliffe, and Henry Daniel of Fayette; 
Fountain,]^ Fox, of Pulaski; Ben Hardin, of 
Marion; Richard Hawses, of Clark; Robert P. 
Letcher, of Garrard; Thomas F. Marshall, of 
Louisville; William W. South_o^ate, of Camp- 
bell; Christopher Tompkins, Jr., of Barren, 
and the "baby" of the House, Lazarus W. 
Pow^ell, who was afterward elected Governor 
of Kentucky. 

The second Kentucky Constitution of 1799 
plainly said that "No person shall be a repre- 
sentative who, at the time of his election, is 
before the legislature convened, and he was 
born October 6, 1812, and at the time of his 
election, in August, 1836, he was not twenty- 
four years of age, and was just old enough to 
enter the legislature about two months before 
it assembled. His age was not discussed, how- 
ever, and he was permitted to take his seat. 
Menefee was twenty-seven years of age the day 
before the legislature convened, and he was 
therefore the second youngest member of the 
House. 

Thomas F. Marshall offered resolutions of 
respect on the death of Francis K. Buford, of 
Woodford County, a representative-elect of 
this legislature, who had died on December 3, 



62 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFES 

from a stab received in an encounter with a Mr. 
Smith. His resolution was passed. 

On Tuesday, December 6, Governor James 
Clark transmitted to both branches of the 
legislature his annual message, in which he in- 
formed them that they had assembled to ex- 
ercise the highest privilege known to freemen. 
That God had been good to Kentucky and 
filled her hills and valleys with many natural 
resources. The public finances were not in 
as sfood condition as he desired them to be. 
which was the most important paragraph in 
his message, as the awful Panic of 1837 was 
just beginning. The laws in general seem to 
be adequate, and the love of law seems to exist 
among the people. The judiciary, however, 
should be improved, he thought, and the pub- 
lic school system should be strengthened. He 
w^as also glad to see the decline of abolitionism. 
The various Kentucky asylums for defectives 
should be improved, and he closes his message 
by assuring them of his hearty co-operation. 

Leave was then given to the different repre- 
sentatives to bring in bills and Menefee intro- 
duced his first bill in the House, "For the bene- 
fit of the Owingsville and Big Sandy Turnpike 
Road Company." The first section of the bill 
repealed the former acts of the legislature in 
autliorizing the repair of the road and the 
building of a turnpike gate, and took the con- 
trol of the road out of the hands of the board 
of commissioners, and put it into the hands of a 
company. The second section said that the 
commissioners and keeper of the gate should 
pay over all funds for which they may be re- 
sponsible, and on their failure to do so, suit 



IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 63 

would be brought, when the Board of Internal 
Improvement thought that the public interest 
required it, and that the gate and the company 
should be discontinued. It was also pro- 
vided that the company should apply the 
moneys coming from said gate to the same 
objects to which the commissioners had 
applied them. Section three said that the com- 
pany may, by suit or suits, coerce the payment 
of the calls on stock that was subscribed by in- 
dividuals or corporations. Section four re- 
pealed the act to amend the act creating the 
company, which Governor jMorehead had of- 
fered February 12, 1836, and the fifth and last 
section of Menefee's first bill increased the 
capital stock of the company to two hundred 
thousand dollars. This act was passed and 
approved by Governor Clark on February 16, 
1832. This was the first pike built in Bath 
Countv.^ 

Bills by Marshall, Tompkins, Powell and 
others were introduced, and resolutions to 
wear crape on the left arm for thirty days in 
remembrance of John W. Anderson of Union 
County and George I\Iorris of Christian 
County, were adopted. It was further decided 
to proceed to an election, by joint vote of the 
two houses on December 15, of a United States 
Senator for six years to succeed Henry Clay, 
whose term expired March 3, 1837. After 
some minor business the House then ad- 
journed. 

On December 7 Speaker Helm appointed the 
standing committees, and Menefee was ap- 
pointed on the Committee of Ways and Cleans, 

' Young's History of Bath County. 



64 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

with David ]\Ieriwether of Jefferson County, 
George W. Williams of Bourbon, Tucker 
Woodson of Jessamine, Roger F. Kelly of 
Christian, Edward B. Cheatham of Adair, and 
William C. ]\IcNary of Muhlenberg County. 
Woodson was later to have the pleasure of 
casting his vote for IMenefee for the highest 
office in the gift of the legislature, the United 
States Senate. 

A motion was then made to instruct the 
Board of Internal Improvement to send an 
engineer to survey the Big South Fork of the 
Cumberland River with a view to making the 
stream navigable for flat boats, and to also see 
what the mineral prospects were in that 
region. The House then adjourned. 

On December 8 a resolution was passed to 
ask Kentucky Congressmen to do all in their 
power to procure the acknowledgment of the 
independence of the Republic of Texas by 
the United States. Governor Clark was in- 
structed to send a copy of the resolutions 
passed to each of the Kentucky Senators and 
representatives. 

The Committee of Ways and INIeans, Mene- 
fee's committee, was instructed to propose the 
act to equalize taxation. While ]\Ienefee had 
the assistance of his six colleagues, it is cer- 
tain that he was almost wholly the author of 
the "equalizing act." On the following day 
the committee reported the bill, and the first 
section of it was passed without amendment, 
but the provisional clause was amended by 
Pleasant Bush, of Clark County. The body of 
the bill, then, was the work of Menefee, while 
the conditional clause was the work of Bush. 



IN The: Kentucky i^EGisiyATUR^ 65 

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Com- 
monwealth of Kentucky, That all persons, from and 
after the tenth day of January eighteen hundred and 
thirty-eight, when giving in their lists of taxable prop- 
erty, shall be, and they are hereby required to fix, on 
oath, a sum sufficient to cover what they shall be re- 
spectively worth, from all sources, on the day to which 
said lists relate, exclusive of the property required by 
law to be listed for taxation, (not computing therein 
the first three hundred dollars in value, nor lands not 
within this State, nor other property out of this State, 
subject to taxation by the laws of the country where 
situated,) upon which the same tax shall be paid, and 
the same proceedings in all respects had, as upon other 
property subject to the ad valor ein tax: Provided, 
That nothing herein contained shall be so construed 
as to include the growing crop on land listed for taxa- 
tion, or one year's crop then on hand, or articles manu- 
factured in the family for family consumption. 

On February 11, Robert P. Letcher, from 
the Committee for Courts of Justice, to whom 
was referred the Senate bill, entitled, "An act 
to repeal an act entitled, 'An act to amend the 
law prohibiting the importation of slaves into 
Kentucky,' " which was approved February 2, 
1833, reported the bill without amendment. 
And, after some discussion, it was decided to 
table the bill until June 1. Menefee resisted 
the repeal of the act, and voted to table it. 
His speech on this bill Marshall called ''the 
master efifort of his mind that winter." I have 
examined the files of the old Frankfort 
Commonwealth, trying to find this speech, but 
neither this one nor any other of IMenefee's 
speeches in the Kentucky legislature have been 
preserved, 



66 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

On the following day, Menefee, with Mar- 
shall, Southgate, and several other men, were 
appointed as a committee on the part of the 
Governor's message that related to the 
judiciary. 

On December 15, according to the resolu- 
tion of the 6th, the House proceeded to the 
election of a United States Senator in the place 
of Henry Clay, whose term was almost ex- 
pired. In the House, Clay was nominated by 
John Kincaid of Lincoln County, and James 
Guthrie was nominated by Patterson C. Lan- 
der of Livingston County. The House vote 
resulted in fifty-five votes for Clay and forty- 
four votes for Guthrie. Marshall, from the 
committee to compare the joint vote of the two 
houses, reported the result to be, sixty-seven 
votes for Clay and fifty-four for Guthrie. Clay 
was then declared elected for the next six 
years. Richard H. Menefee cast his vote for 
Henry Clay. 

On December 17 Menefee presented the 
petition of sundry citizens of Mercer and Lin- 
coln Counties praying for the foundation of a 
new county out of parts of said counties. The 
struggle for this new county had been going 
on in the legislature for twenty-five years and 
was to be consummated five years later. 
Menefee then had an important part in the 
foundation of the new county which, in 1842, 
was formed, and named Boyle County, in 
honor of the distinguished Kentucky Chief 
Justice, John Boyle. 

Speaker Helm appointed a committee of 
four representatives, David Trimble of 
Greenup County; Franklin A. Andrews of 



IN TH^ KENTUCKY IvEGlSIvATURE 67 

Fleming; Samuel Stone of Bath, and Richard 
H. Menefee of Montgomery County, to bring 
in a bill founding a system of general educa- 
tion in Kentucky. A day or so later Menefee 
reported this bill, and after being read three 
times, one hundred and fifty copies were or- 
dered to be printed for the use of members of 
the House. 

I have been unable to obtain a copy of this 
bill, but Judge William F. Bullock, of Louis- 
ville, the following year, certainly used it to 
advantage in drafting the present system of 
education in Kentucky. While Judge Bullock 
lives in Kentucky history as the founder of the 
common school system, Richard H. Menefee 
was the originator of the present system. It 
is the same story of one man originating a 
thing and another man perfecting it. The per- 
fecter always gets the honor of being the 
founder. For instance. Fitch and Fulton, in 
regard to the steamboat. 

Before Menefee introduced his education bill 
in the legislature,^ the legislature had, at dif- 
ferent times, sent agents to visit other States 
and report in regard to the various systems. 
These visits had amounted to nothing, how- 
ever, as up to 1836 Kentucky had no money 
with which to establish a system. But in 1836 
the State got its share of the surplus resulting 
from the sale of public lands, and with one- 
half of it, which was $850,000, plans to estab- 
lish the system were begun. On the last day of 
the legislature, of which Menefee was a mem- 
ber. Governor Clark approved Menefee's edu- 
cation bill. At the next session of the legis- 



Baber's Popular Education in Kentucky, 1881. 



68 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEK 

lature Judge Bullock "worked over" Menefee's 
bill and had it passed, permanently establish- 
ing the present system of common school edu- 
cation in Kentucky. 

When Speaker Helm let his gavel fall the 
day before Christmas, 1836, a quorum was not 
present and he adjourned the House until 
January 2, 1837. INIenefee probably spent the 
holidays with his wife's mother, Mrs. Jouett, 
in Lexins^ton. AVhen the House assembled 
after the holidays, Thomas F. Marshall, from 
the committee composed of himself, Menefee, 
Southgate, and several others, which had been 
appointed by Speaker Helm as a committee on 
that part of the Governor's message relating 
to the judiciary, made his report. Marshall 
commended Governor Clark's attitude toward 
the judiciary of Kentucky, and the famous 
orator went into the history of all time in so 
doing. He was preparing himself for the de- 
livery of those unique history lectures that he 
was to give during the last years of his life. 

On January 3 a bill was tabled asking the 
Kentucky Congressmen to vote for Richard 
M. Johnson, a Kentuckian, for Vice-President 
in preference to Francis Granger of New York. 

In February, 1836, Governor Morehead had 
approved a bill, authorizing Henry C. Harris, 
guardian of Emeline May, the infant heir of 
Samuel May, deceased, to sell May's real estate 
and pay his' (May's) debts, and for other pur- 
poses. James Franklin had bought the prop- 
erty, and had executed bonds for the purchase 
money. Harris had lost the bond for the title, 
and besides, to sell May's property would be 
an injury and loss to the infant heir, Emeline 



IN THE) KENTUCKY I.EGISI.ATURE 69 

May. On January 10, Menefee presented the 
petition of Harris, praying for an amendment 
of this act of February, 1836. 

Marshall said in his eulogy that it was upon 
this bill "that he was first heard to speak." As 
a matter of fact, it was one of the last speeches 
that Menefee delivered in the Kentucky House 
of Representatives.' Menefee's wife sat in the 
gallery and did not know that her husband was 
going to speak until he arose and she heard 
his flute-like voice. "She felt the blood rush to 
her face, and with feverish anxiety she waited 
for the climax, and drew a large veil over her 
face to hide her blushes and confusion, should 
he fail. Fail? That was not written in his 
category of words." The petition asking for 
the amendment was passed. 

On January 14 he presented a bill to incor- 
porate the Mount Sterling academy for the 
education of females, which was passed and 
approved February 23. This academy did 
good work for many years. 

On January 18, Menefee moved the follow- 
ing: "That, His Excellency, the Governor, be 
and hereby is requested to inform the House 
what proportion of the Internal Improvement 
fund set apart by the act of February 28, 1835, 
for the three great sections has been ex- 
pended — how much in the southern section — 
how much in the middle section and how much 
in the northern section; also, what amount of 
the same remains subject to appropriation or 
subscription by the State in each of the said 
sections respectively; and whether the 
$200,000 set apart for either of the said sec- 

' Clement's speech. Related to him by Mrs. Menefee. 



yO RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

tions, or the distribution to either, for roads on 
any part thereof has been expended or sub- 
scribed in any other sections, and whether 
either of said sections has ever received more 
than its ratable amount, and if so, by what au- 
thority was such expenditures or subscrip- 
tion made." I lis motion was carried. He 
then moved the following, which was also 
adopted: "That the committee for courts of 
justice — composed of Letcher, Marshall, and 
others — be instructed to inquire into the ex- 
pedience of providing by law for the exemption 
of the coal of blacksmiths from execution; and 
to report by bill or otherwise." 

On January 21 the joint committees of the 
two houses, composed of seven representatives 
and two senators, Menefee being one of them, 
that had been appointed to examine into the 
condition of the Northern Bank in Kentucky, 
reported that the bank was in good condition 
and was entitled to the confidence of the people 
of Kentucky. 

On February 26 the House resumed the con- 
sideration of the bill to amend the Louisville, 
Cincinnati and Charleston R. R. Co., and the 
amendment of Alarshall, striking out Lexing- 
ton and inserting Louisville, to be the terminus 
of the road. The Frankfort correspondent 
of the Lexington Intelligencer, in the issue for 
February 10, gave the following account of 
Menefee's speech on this bill : 

Marshall concluded after candle lighting, and ]\Ir. 
Menefee addressed the House for an hour. His speech 
evidenced great reasoning powers. He contended that 
it was not so much a Louisville and Charleston work, 
as a Carolina and Kentucky connection. He showed 



IN Thi; Kentucky i^gisIvATur^ 71 

what were the elements and objects of commerce, and 
by an able examination of these, deduced the result 
that more advantage would come to Kentucky, and to 
the consumers of articles of consumption of a growth 
beyond her limits, by bringing the road to Lexington, 
than to Louisville. He contended that the road was 
to find business, not merely at extreme points, but at 
every point of its passage. New business would be 
created, more consumption of articles for foreign use. 
He believed Carolina's policy on this subject was right, 
even if she should make the road to Cincinnati, as the 
gentlemen deemed it to be her design. It ought to go 
to the Ohio River there. And he predicted and called 
marked attention to the prophecy, that Louisville 
would make the branch to the Cumberland Gap, or to 
the road in that region by her own means and re- 
sources, whenever Carolina's means and resources, or 
those of the Company, were employed in carrying on 
the branch to Covington. 

Mr. Menefee is one of the most talented young men 
in our country, and I doubt not he is destined, should 
not death or misfortune thwart the aspirations of a 
mind of vast power and intellectual wealth, to take a 
high stand in the councils of that great country in 
which Carolina and Kentucky are only component 
parts. 

After Menefee's speech the vote on Mar- 
shall's amendment was taken, and lost, fifty- 
three to thirty-nine, Menefee voting in the 
negative. 

Tvv^o days later, Menefee presented the fol- 
lov^ing resolution: "That, The use of the Hall 
of the House of Representatives be tendered to 
the Wandering Piper this evening." The 
House granted his resolution and then ad- 
journed. This early Kentucky minstrel per- 
formed on the Scotch and Irish bagpipes, and 



'^2 RICHARD HICKMAN M^NEFEE 

was a descendant, according to the spirit, of 
those minstrels of the Middle Ages who wan- 
dered from town to town to play for the great 
and mighty of the earth. The Wandering 
Piper performed in Lexington before going to 
Frankfort, and later went to Washington City, 
where he was cordially received. 

Practically every measure that Richard H. 
Menefee presented to the Kentucky legislature 
of 1836-37 was passed, excepting his petition 
for the citizens of Lincoln and Mercer Coun- 
ties, asking for the new county of Boyle to be 
created out of parts of their respective counties. 
This fight for a new county, as has already 
been stated, had been going on for twenty-five 
years before he entered the legislature, and he 
did as much as any other one man to get the 
new county formed. Boyle County was 
formed five years later. Besides the bills men- 
tioned in detail, Menefee had many other 
measures, of minor importance, passed, which 
it has not been deemed worthy to mention in 
this book. His term in the Kentucky legis- 
lature is without a parallel in the State's his- 
tory. No man ever fulfilled the expectations of 
his constituency better than did he. 

Speaker John L. Helm delivered his vale- 
dictory and adjourned the House, sine die, 
February 23, 1837. The session had lasted 
nearly fifteen weeks. Menefee returned to 
Lexington with many of the other representa- 
tives and was given a public dinner by the 
citizens of Lexington on February 25 at Col. 
John Keiser's Hotel, which was situated at the 
corner of North Broadway and Short streets. 
This dinner was to show the appreciation of 



IN TH^ KENTUCKY I.EGISLATURE 73 

the citizens of Lexington and Fayette Counties 
for the very efficient manner in which the rep- 
resentatives had discharged their duties. The 
legislature was notified before it adjourned 
and the members were requested to invite 
their friends. Colonel Keiser had his best 
cooks in the kitchen on that day, and an ex- 
cellent dinner was served. Party spirit was 
banished and good feeling prevailed. Maj. 
John Tilford acted as president and he was as- 
sisted by the three vice-presidents, Col. Benja- 
min Taylor, Henry C. Pogue, and John Brand. 
After the cloth was removed such toasts as the 
following were responded to and drunk : "The 
State of Kentucky," "International Improve- 
ments," "Our Senator — A. K. Wooley," and 
"Our Representatives — William Rhodes, 
Henry Daniels, and Robert Wickliffe, Jr." 
This toast provoked such applause that the 
above-named gentlemen were obliged to rise 
and address the meeting. Other toasts were: 
"The Citizens of Kentucky," and "The Ladies 
of Kentucky — Oh beautiful! and rare as 
beautiful!" Then, "By the Committee on Ar- 
rangements to Our Guest, R. H. Menefee," 
which read as follows: "Proud of him as the 
County of Montgomery may be as a faithful 
and honest representative, we are still prouder 
of him as a talented and native-born son of 
Kentucky. The fearless eloquence and states- 
manlike views which he has displayed in the 
councils of the State commend at the hands 
of the people a seat in the councils of the 
nation." Menefee returned his thanks for this 
"honorable notice" to the committee in an elo- 
quent speech which was greeted with cheers. 



74 RICHARD HICKMAN MDNEFEK 

He then responded to the toast — "A general 
system of pubHc instruction — practicable, be- 
cause consistent with the theory of our politi- 
cal institutions; its foundations have been laid 
by the late legislature — the people demand 
that it should be carried into execution." At 
this meeting Richard 11. Alenefee's "congres- 
sional boom" was launched. After a few other 
toasts the meeting adjourned. 

If Menefee had been contemplating making 
a race for Congress, this banquet finally de- 
cided him to announce himself, for in the 
Frankfort Cojuiiioiiiccalth, of April 19, about 
three weeks after the banquet, he announced 
his candidacy to succeed Judge Richard 
French, as Congressman from the eleventh 
cono-ressional district. French also announced 
himself to succeed himself, and the Kentucky 
newspapers predicted the race between the 
brilliant young Whig and the distinguished 
Democrat would be a bitter one. 

Richard French, Menefee's opponent for the 
twenty-fifth Congress, was born in Madi- 
son County, in 1792, the year that Ken- 
tucky was admitted into the Union. He 
studied law under the Honorable Samuel Han- 
son, a distinguished lawyer, and began prac- 
ticing at Winchester, Kentucky. After prac- 
ticing law a few years he entered politics and 
was elected as Clark County's representative 
to the Kentucky legislature of 1820-1822. He 
was elected to the twenty-fourth Congress in 
1835, and in 1837 announced himself as a can- 
didate for the same office. In 1840, as the 
Democratic candidate for Governor of Ken- 
tuckv, he was defeated bv Robert P. Letcher. 



IN THE KENTUCKY IvEGlSI^ATURE 75 

French died in Kenton County in 1854. He 
was an able speaker and debater, and a good 
citizen. 

When it was known throughout the eleventh 
congressional district, that was composed of 
the counties of Montgomery, Bath, Fleming, 
Lawrence, Lewis, Morgan, and Greenup, that 
Menefee and French were the opposing candi- 
dates for Congress, the excitement was intense. 

In the latter part of May, 1837, the famous 
American orator, Daniel Webster, accom- 
panied by his family, visited Kentucky. At 
Louisville, Lexington, Maysville, and Ver- 
sailles he was given public dinners and a per- 
fect ovation. There is a legend in Kentucky 
that, at Lexington or Maysville, he heard 
Menefee deliver a speech and was so delighted 
with the young Kentuckian that, at the close of 
the meeting, he took Menefee in his arms and 
embraced him. I have been unable to verify 
this legend. Webster probably did take him 
in his arms on a memorable night in July of 
the following year wdien Menefee responded to 
the toast on Kentucky at the Faneuil Hall ban- 
quet, in Boston, given in honor of New Hamp- 
shire's mighty son. 

One of Menefee's most distinguished sup- 
porters for Congressional honors was the 
famous preacher ''Raccoon John Smith," of the 
Church of the Disciples. His biographer, John 
A. Williams, tells us "that Smith loved Mene- 
fee with almost parental fondness." He was 
as decided in his political as he was in his re- 
ligious opinions. Williams gives the most 
vivid description of the campaign that I have 
been able to find, and I shall quote it verbatim : 



y^ RICHARD HICKMAN MENHI^'E;^ 

"The political strife of that year was intensely 
earnest. As the day for the election drew 
nigh, almost every other interest was forgot- 
ten; quiet neighbors waxed warm with dis- 
putations; partisan remarks were mingled 
with their harvest songs, and political wran- 
gling profaned, on Sunday, the very precincts 
of the sanctuary. The brilliant Menefee, with 
his boyish face and delicate form, moved like a 
meteor from one neighborhood barbecue to an- 
other, and the mountains sent up their shouts 
of enthusiasm when he appeared. The voice 
of the people at length prevailed, and the popu- 
lar honors rested on the brow of the young 
statesman." 

The old preacher was a staunch Whig, and 
the position that he took almost rent his church 
asunder. He finally vindicated himself, how- 
ever, and in October following the election, his 
fifteenth child was born and he immediately 
named him Menefee Smith. The young name- 
sake of the eminent Kentuckian was to suffer 
death at the age of five years, in a way that was 
more cruel than the death that Menefee himself 
suffered. The little fellow was scalded to death 
and the old preacher carried his grief with him 
to his grave. 

Many stories are told of the campaign be- 
tween French and Menefee. I have tried to 
sift them all, and have decided to retain two 
of them which were related to Mr. LaVega 
Clements by Menefee's widow, a few years 
before her death, and one that Maj. O. S. 
Tenny tells. One day, while this ''bushwhack- 
ing canvass" was at its highest point, Menefee, 
in company with a companion, was riding in a 



IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE yj 

mountainous part of his district, lie came to a 
farm-house. "Ah, we will stop here and sec 
our friends," said Menefce to his companion. 
"Pshaw, Dick, that's the home of old man 
Davis and his five sons. They are all Demo- 
crats and would as soon think of voting- for 
Satan as a Whig." Menefee, however, insisted 
on stopping and his companion agreed. Davis 
invited them to a dinner of corn hread, hacon 
and cofi:*ee, without sugar, and fed their horses. 
After dinner, Menefee informed Davis that he 
was Judge French's opponent for Congress. 
Davis asked him why the Whigs did not i)ut 
up a man and not a mere boy against French, 
and proceeded to joke him about his boyish 
appearance. Menefee then suggested that he 
and Davis should wrestle, and if he (Menefce) 
gained the first fall, that Davis should vote for 
him for Congress. Davis agreed and he and 
Menefee repaired to the front yard, where 
Whigism and Democracy locked arms. In a 
few moments Whigism was astride of Democ- 
racy. After having gained one vote so easily 
Menefee suggested that the five sons of Davis 
should wrestle with him, with the same agree- 
ment to hold. The sons consented and in a 
few minutes Menefee had won six votes. After 
having thrown the men of the family, he jok- 
ingly suggested to Davis that he never liked 
to do things by halves, and for him to bring 
forth the old woman and he would win another 
vote. Besides gaining six votes, the story also 
reveals that Menefee was a man physically, as 
well as mentally, and not a weakling, as the 
popular conception has it. 

Menefee played many tricks on French, but 



78 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEF'EE 

Judge Tenny, who was long a resident of Mt. 
Sterling, tells the best one. On one occasion 
Menefee and French met at a dance. The 
young Whig captured all the fair partners and 
French was compelled to sit by and see his op- 
ponent win the hearts of the wives and sweet- 
hearts of the voters. The old Judge stood it 
as long as he could, when he left and went to 
another dance some miles away. One of 
Menefee's friends advised him of French's 
action and told him of a "short cut" road to the 
place that French had started for, which, if he 
would take, although it was rough, he would 
arrive at the next dance ahead of his opponent. 
Menefee immediately left, taking the rough 
road, and when French arrived, he found Mene- 
fee again ahead of him, and swore that he had 
been led around in a circle and brought back to 
the place that he had left. His wife was also 
very angry, and affirmed that if her husband 
did not beat the "yellow-headed boy for Con- 
gress" she would get a divorce. But she saw 
French defeated and did not carry out her 
threat. 

The best-known story of the campaign is the 
Grimes bear story. Owen Grimes kept a tav- 
ern and was also postmaster at the Olympian 
Springs in Bath County. His wife was an 
ardent supporter of Menefee. Grimes had a 
pet bear. (Due day, French and ]\Ienefee met at 
the Springs to present their claims for the 
people's consideration. ]\Ienefee led off and 
French followed. When the Judge had gotten 
started, I\Irs. Grimes called to her husband, 
"Owen, turn that bear loose!" Owen did not 
do so. Again she shouted, "Owen, I say turn 



IN THE KENTUCKY IvEGISIvATURE 79 

that bear loose, and do it quick !" Owen under- 
stood that command and compHed. The crowd 
scattered in every direction and left French 
speaking to the empty air. .Madam Grimes 
then returned to the tavern, where she no 
doubt prepared an excellent dinner for her 
hero. 

On August 9 the election began and lasted 
three days. On the second day of the election, 
Menefee was beating French so badly that it 
was thought his majority would be upward of 
500. The Lexington Intelligencer received the fol- 
lowing note from a correspondent in Owings- 
ville, dated August 9, 1837: "Thinking that 
you would like to hear from our Congressional 
election, I avail myself of a leisure moment to 
assure you that Mr. Menefee, our Wliig candi- 
date, is certainly safe — he must get a majority 
of from three to five hundred. He made a 
speech here to-day, or rather expressed his 
great gratitude to his friends and supporters. 
Our county candidate, Trumbo, is also elected. 
His majority will be upwards of 500. Is 

not this glorious? Yours, ." He was 

wrong, however, as Menefee's majority after 
three days of voting, was 234. The official 
vote, by counties, was as follows. Fleming, 
Menefee 1160, French 806; Bath, Menefee 763. 
French 671 ; IMontgomery, Menefee 744, 
French 552; Greenup, jNIenefee 543, French 
538, and in the three other counties French 
polled a majority over Menefee as fol- 
lows : Lewis, Menefee 393, French 422 ; Law- 
rence, Menefee 279, French 500; and in Mor- 
gan County French got 415 votes to Menefee's 
232. In the district Menefee obtained 4084 



80 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

votes to French's 3850, giving him a majority 
of 234 

A short time after his election, Menefee, with 
his wife, came to Lexington, where, on August 
24, 1837, his second child was born, and named 
Richard Jouett Menefee. On the same day 
that his son was born, Menefee, in company 
with Hon. James Harlan, left Lexington for 
Washington, going by the way of Maysville, 
Kentucky, to serve in the called session of the 
25th Congress. 

At the August election of 1837, twelve 
Whigs and only one Democrat were elected as 
Kentucky's representatives in the National 
House. Kentucky was then divided into thir- 
teen Congressional districts instead of eleven, 
as now. Henry Clay and John J. Crittenden 
were the Senators from Kentucky. Besides 
Menefee and James Harlan, who was from 
Llarrodsburg and the father of Associate Jus- 
tice John M. Harlan of the United States 
Supreme Court, Kentucky had eleven repre- 
sentatives in the lower house of Congress: 
John Calhoun, John Chambers, William J. 
Graves, Cilley's slayer; Richard Hawes, John 
L. Murray, John Pope, William W. Southgate, 
Joseph R. Underwood, afterward United 
States Senator, and Menefee's most distin- 
guished colleague from Kentucky; John White, 
Sherrod Williams, and Edward Rumsey. 
The National Intelligencer for September 2 an- 
nounced that Menefee had arrived in Wash- 
ington. 



CHAPTER V 

IN CONGRESS 

On March 4, 1837, Martin Van Buren had 
succeeded Andrew Jackson as President of the 
United States. He had taken Jackson's cabi- 
net and announced his intention of carrying 
out his ideas. He caught the full effect of 
Jackson's financial policy. The excessive 
amount of paper money in circulation had en- 
couraged reckless speculation ; and the specie 
circular of 1836 had, by reviving the demand 
for gold and silver, destroyed nearly all the 
banks which had no government deposits at 
their command. "The demand for deposits for 
distribution among the States caused the ruin 
of many of the 'pet banks.' They had treated 
the deposits as capital, to be used in loans to 
business men, and now had to return them. 
The sudden calling in of these loans began the 
Panic of 1837, to which nothing comparable 
had before been seen in America. Early in 
May the New York City banks refused to pay 
gold or silver for their notes, and llie New 
York legislature authorized a suspension of 
specie payments for one year. Banks in other 
cities at once suspended."^ 

Credit was accepted by no one, and prices 
rose all over America. Flour rose from five 
dollars in 1834 to eleven dollars in 1837. per 
barrel, and corn went up from fifty-three cents 



^Johnston's American Politics. 
6 



82 RICHARD HICKMAN MKNE^EK 

to one dollar and fifteen cents per bushel. 
There were bread riots in New York City dur- 
ing the months of February and March, 1837. 
On May 15, President Van Buren, by procla- 
mation, called an extra session of Congress to 
meet September 4, to consider measures of re- 
lief. All through the summer of 1837 the panic 
continued its course, wrecking banks and ruin- 
ing business men.^ 

Congress assembled according to Van 
Buren's proclamation, on Monday, September 
4, 1837, and at noon of that day Vice-President 
Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky called the 
Senate to order, and Walter S. Franklin, clerk 
of the 24th Congress, called the House to order. 
The Democrats had a majority in the Senate, 
but in the House, although most of the Cal- 
houn Democracy were supporting the admin- 
istration, the Whigs were strong enough to 
demand consideration in all measures that 
might come before the House. Before going 
into this chapter proper, I desire to say that I 
am simply writing the history of Richard H. 
Menefee, and not a history of the Congress 
proper. The main bibliography used for this 
chapter is the Congressional Globe, which was 
founded in 1830 by Francis Blair, of Kentucky, 
in time to catch the eloquence of Menefee, 
Richard H. Menefee was the youngest member 
of the 25th Congress. Sargent S. Prentiss of 
Mississippi was born September 30, 1808, but 
his seat was contested and the House refused 
to permit him to take it. He was elected at a 
new election, however, and took his seat May 
30, 1838. Robert M. T. Hunter was born on 

' Wilson's Division and Reunion (1829-1889). 



IN CONGRESS 83 

April 21, 1809. Menefee was the ''baby" of the 
House in years only; in many ways he was the 
giant of the House. A general description of 
the personnel of the 25th Congress is found in 
Mr. C. H. Peck's history of the times. ^ 

The personnel of the 25th Congress was reasonably 
strong and brilliant. The prolonged political contests 
had directed the ambitions of many able men toward 
public life, and neither the Senate nor the House has 
ever contained a greater number of men already dis- 
tinguished and to obtain distinction than met on the 
first Monday of September, 1837, to deal with the un- 
precedented condition of the country and the national 
finances, that would doubtless have been better had 
there been less political animosity, ambition and insist- 
ence ; for such conditions are extremely adverse to the 
national solution of financial problems. The chief 
benefit of the political struggles about to be renewed 
in Congress were the lessons that they were to teach 
in the future. 

A more specific account is found in Joseph 
D. Shields' biography of S. S. Prentiss. 

The old Hall of Representatives was a grand-looking 
chamber, with its lofty dome, its Speaker's chair be- 
neath the eagle draped in the folds of our flag, its 
oval shape and its tapered pillars supporting the lofty 
gallery. Before the young aspirant (Prentiss) sat an 
array of talent of our country which has rarely, if 
ever, been equalled. Near him sat the wit, diplomatist, 
statesman, sage, who reversed the maxim "Jack of all 
trades," for he seemed to be an "admirable Crichton" 
and good at all, Ex-President John Ouincy Adams. 
There sat against him the short but heavy-bodied ac- 
complished orator and scholar, Hugh Swinton Legare 

'The "Jacksonian Epoch," by C. H. Peck. pp. 356-357- 



84 RICHARD HICKMAN MEN^FEiJ 

of South Carolina. On his side was Thomas Corwin, 
one of the greatest orators of his age. There was the 
brilHant Menefee of Kentucky, hovering near him was 
the Harry Percy of the House, Henry A. Wise of Vir- 
ginia, and his own phlegmatic colleague, R. IM. T. 
Hunter. There sat Cilley of Maine, who also was so 
soon to fall, another victim to the "code of honor." 
There was the eloquent Dawson of Georgia, whose 
prediction about Prentiss I have before given (Dawson 
predicted great things for Prentiss). There sat How- 
ard of Maryland, the head and front of the opposition 
to him, and near him sat Bronson of New York, who 
was almost persuaded to be in his favor. There was 
Millard Fillmore, clorcni ct vcncrahilc iwiiioi: Evans 
of Maine; Levi Lincoln and Caleb Cushing of Massa- 
chusetts ; Sergeant of Pennsylvania and Bell of Ten- 
nessee, who, as we have seen, was in this case the "bell- 
wether of the flock." The colleagues of Prentiss, 
Goldson, and Word were also able men. 

Shields then adds a statement that is as true 
of IMenefee as it is of Prentiss: 

He had before addressed people by the thousand ; 
he had spoken before justices of the peace, judges of 
the Circuit and Supreme Courts and juries; he had 
haran£rued the masses from the hustings ; he had 
spoken to the legislature of his State; but this was the 
first time that he was to stand before the American 
people. Through the ear of Congress the nation was 
his auditor. 

The old hall of the House of Representatives 
was an imposing bnildin^, but it was an 
acoustic failnre. Ordinarily the voice of the 
Representatives reverberated to the dome. 
Late in the fifties, the new hall was completed 
and the question as to the final disposition of 



IN CONGRESS 85 

the old hall was agitated. Justin S. :\Iorrill of 
Vermont, the father of the' State Colleges, on 
July 2, 1864, had a bill passed setting aside the 
old building as the National Statuary Hall. 
Morrill's act said that each State should have 
the right to place two statues of her distin- 
guished sons in the Statuary Hall. About 
twenty States have sent statues. Kentucky 
has not decided upon her representatives. 
Henry Clay has been sufficiently honored by 
Kentucky; Lincoln and Davis have been 
honored by their adopted States. Why not 
place statues of Richard H. Alenefee, the ora- 
tor, and Ephraim McDowell, the surgeon, rep- 
resentatives of two great fields of human 
activity, in the National Statuary Hall, as 
Kentucky's representatives in the American 
Valhalla? 

The first duty of the House was to elect a 
Speaker, and it proceeded to do so. The whole 
number of votes cast was 224; 113 was neces- 
sary for a choice. James K. Polk, a Democrat, 
of Tennessee, received 1 16 votes, and John Bell, 
of the same State, received 103; scattering 5. 
Polk was therefore declared elected and in an 
appropriate speech returned thanks to the 
House for the honor conferred upon him. 
Polk is the only Speaker of the National House 
that was ever elected President. After the 
Speaker was elected, the members were quali- 
fied by taking the oath prescribed by the Con- 
stitution. Mr. Walter S. Franklin of Pennsyl- 
vania, clerk of the 24th Congress, was then re- 
elected clerk of the 25th Congress. The door- 
keepers and sergeant-at-arms were then ap- 
pointed and the House of Representatives of 



86 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

the 25th Congress was ready to exercise its 
legislative power. 

In his message, Van Buren recommended 
that the Government should not directly inter- 
fere with the awful panic, but permit it to right 
itself. He recommended the "Sub-Treasury or 
Independent Treasury plan." The measure 
was regarded by the Whigs as an endeavor to 
break down the banks of the country, and while 
it passed the Senate, it was tabled in the House. 

The first mention of Menefee is made on 
September 11, when the standing committees 
were announced. Menefee, with Robert B. 
Cranston of Rhode Island, George H. Dunn of 
Indiana, Joseph Ridgeway of Ohio, and 
Samuel T. Sawyer of North Carolina, formed 
the committee "On Expenditures of the Public 
Buildings." On this committee JMenefee 
served through the entire Congress, and at the 
first regular session he was appointed to also 
serve on the Committee on Patents with Ben- 
nett Bicknell of New York, Isaac Fletcher of 
Vermont, Mathias Morris of Pennsylvania, 
and Lancelot Phelps of Connecticut. 

On September 19 Menefee wrote the follow- 
ing letter to Dr. H. S. Guerrant, of Sharpsburg, 
Kentucky. 

Washington City, Sept. 19, 1837. 
Dear Doctor: — 

Yours of the nth was received yesterday and I am 
greatly obliged to you for the spirit of personal kind- 
ness towards me which it manifests. Suffer me to 
hope that when your more important engagements will 
allow of it, you will write to me during the session of 
Congress. It was rather of some surprise to me that 
you had not received the President's message at the 



IN CONGRESS 87 

date of your letter (the nth). As soon as printed 
copies could be procured, I despatched it to every post- 
office in the district. I was apprised of the general 
anxiety to see what measures of relief the President 
would recommend to the country. I confess I partici- 
pated in the general anxiety. You have all doubtless 
seen the message before this time, and I hazard, I 
think, but little or nothing to suppose that your ex- 
pectations were as much disappointed as those of the 
rest of the nation. Congress was summoned for the 
first time in peace at an unusual period of the year in 
anticipation of its regular session, for the considera- 
tion of "great and weighty matters." The condition 
of the country was extraordinary — not for prosperity 
as it for years before had been, but for a distress which 
it had scarcely ever before experienced, brought upon 
it, as admitted by all, by the action of the general gov- 
ernment. The eyes of the people turned to Congress 
for relief. The friends of the administration promised 
it — well, Congress obeyed the Executive summons and 
concurred; and is met with a message which admits 
in the most distinct manner the deep distress of the 
country, and even the overwhelming catastrophe that 
has befallen it, yet recommends no manner of relief — 
immediate or remote— but barely seeks through some 
further action of Congress to enable him to pay off the 
office holders and other dependants on the federal 
treasury, promptly and in specie, denying at the same 
time all right in Congress to administer relief to the 
people in any form known to the Constitution. The 
government is to be detached from the people; and 
Congress is deliberately instructed to save the spoils- 
men^inking under their extravagance and corruption; 
and commanded to stand off and witness, with folded 
hands, the perishing of every substantial interest ot 
the people. The message is atrocious. 

Very truly yours, 

Richard H. Menefee. 



88 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^E^ 

Dr. Guerrant was of Huguenot descent and 
was born in Buckingham County, Virginia. 
He was educated at Washington College (now 
Washington and Lee University) and came to 
Kentucky about 1835 to practice his profession. 
He settled near Owingsville and he and Mene- 
fee became intimate friends. He was an ardent 
Whig, and obtained the respect of his fellow- 
citizens. His son is the distinguished divine, 
Edward O. Guerrant, D. D. 

On September 26, Menefee presented a peti- 
tion or memorial, the nature of which the 
Globe does not state. 

One of the most important measures that 
was to come before the 25th Congress was the 
question of the surplus revenue. The law of 
1836 gave the surplus to the States, and three 
"deposits," or gifts as they really were, had 
been distributed.' In 1837 a bill, with Van 
Buren back of it, to cause this distribution to 
cease, was passed. On September 27, Menefee 
made his first speech in Congress on this bill. 
He was preceded by Daniel Jenifer of Mary- 
land, and both speakers opposed the bill. 

menefee's speech on the postponement oe the 
eourth instalment^ 

Mr. speaker: After the protracted discussion 
which the bill has already undergone, I should refrain 
from taking the wide range in which gentlemen on 
both sides have indulged. I should content myself 
with a consideration of the proposition immediately 
before them — a proposition, in my opinion, quite suf- 

' Shepard's "Van Buren." 

^ Speech in National Intelligencer. 



IN CONGRESS 89 

ficient for one debate. Nor. indeed, am 1 sure that I 
should have trespassed on the House at all, had the 
question been one of exclusive national bearing. 

But, sir, it concerns, nearly and deeply, the govern- 
ment and the people of Kentucky: to a degree render- 
ing it inexcusable in her representatives to witness the 
passage of this bill, without, at least, protesting against 
it on behalf of that State. Among the numerous ob- 
jections to this bill, it may, not without reason, be 
urged as it has been, that the act of Congress of the 
23rd of June, 1836, directing certain money belonging 
to the United States to be transferred to the several 
States on their complying with the prescribed terms, 
bears the character of a legislative contract, from the 
obligations of which this Government cannot rightfully 
discharge itself by sucli an interference with its pro- 
visions as the bill under consideration proposes. The 
act carried with it certain propositions to the States, 
which they accepted, respecting the public money. Its 
mere custody, if nothing more was intended, undoubt- 
edly involved both expense and responsibility, inde- 
pendently of the express and formal stii)ulations to 
restore it when demanded according to the terms of 
the act. It is not pretended that the States have failed. 
in the smallest particular, to observe the requisitions 
of the act, as far as transfers have already been made; 
nor is their readiness or ability to comply, with respect 
to the instalment yet due, at all questioned. 

It is perfectly competent to a Government to create, 
in the form of laws, contracts binding upon it. The 
practice often occurs. All our acts of incorporation 
are instances of this kind of legislation. 

If, then, the act of 1836 be. as it is represented, and 
insisted on, a contract — and it is difficult, if not impos- 
sible, to distinguish it from a contract — the objection 
to the bill, for that cause alone, is altogether sufficient. 
If a contract, it must be fulfilled. The Government 
cannot escape from the obligations it imposes, except 
by the consent of the other contracting party — the 



90 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

States. The violation by Congress of such a contract 
could not, I know, be redressed by a resort to the 
judicial tribunals. Yet the imputation of tyranny and 
perfidy would justly await such a violation: a posi- 
tion which no one supposes an American Congress 
capable of occupying. 

But, sir, I do not rest by opposition to this bill ex- 
clusively, or even mainly, on the ground of a sup- 
posed violation of contract involved in it. This I deem 
a narrow view of the matter. I place it on higher and 
more commanding reasons : on the true nature and 
spirit of the act; not as evidenced by its language or 
its form, but by the principles in which it was con- 
ceived, the ends it aimed at, and the whole context of 
circumstances which attended its enactment. 

What, sir, I ask, are the nature and spirit of that 
act? It is attempted to be maintained that it was 
merely intended as a measure of finance; that the pub- 
lic money was to be transferred, for the advantage of 
the Treasury of the United States, to the State treas- 
uries, there to be held on deposit strictly — not contem- 
plating the use of it by the States for their own benefit, 
even temporarily. In other words, that the States 
were, as such, substantially converted, by that act, into 
so many agents and instruments of the Federal Treas- 
ury. Under this pretension, the use of the money, by 
the States, even for the shortest periods, or to the least 
extent, was wholly forbidden. For if Congress could 
authorize the use of it by the States, without interest 
or equivalent, for an indefinite time, they might, upon 
the same principle, and with equal propriety, wholly 
relinquish it to the States; the constitutional power 
to do which the advocates of this construction deny. 

The idea of the general Government collecting its 
vast revenue, from its innumerable source, all over the 
Union, with its multitude of collecting officers lining 
our seaboard, and of receivers of public money scat- 
tered over the whole West, and all the expense and 
machinery belonging to so extended a system, to divide 



IN CONGRESS 91 

out amongst the twenty-six States, to be held without 
use by them, or interest to the Government, for tlie 
purpose of being returned when demanded, is utterly 
inadmissible as a measure of finance purely. But a 
small advance would be needed under a system like 
this, to require the revenue, after its collection, to be 
returned to the individuals from whom collected, to 
be by them held as agents of the Treasury, and repaid 
when wanted for the immediate use of Government. 
Its clumsiness, and utter imbecility, as a system of 
finance, would justly fix reproach on any nation that 
should adopt it. 

But, sir, the error of this construction is still more 
manifest, when it is remembered that Congress, in the 
antecedent part of the same act, formally and mi- 
nutely provides for the deposit of the Public money in 
the State banks; another addition to the deformed and 
unnatural system attempted to be found in that act. 
As a system of finance, who, with a proper respect for 
his reputation, will consent to stand forth as its 
champion? Who will endure the paternity of such a 
financial monster? Who so reckless of the opinions 
of the world as publicly, in his place here, to holtl 
fellowship with it? I dismiss this view of the ques- 
tion. Gravely to refute such a construction, would \)c 
an act of violence to the wisdom of Congress and the 
national character. 

No, sir, the act of the 23rd of June was no financial 
expedient, it is more imposing. It is the offspring of 
considerations tenderly afifecting the Federal Consti- 
tution and the purity and its administration. 

By a course of Federal legislation, whether consti- 
tutional or unconstitutional, wise or unwise, is of no 
moment here, a large revenue had accumulated beyond 
the wants of the Treasury. Large, however, as this 
surplus was, it cannot be pretended that its mere cus- 
tody by the Government was impracticable, or even 
difficult. Its full competency to this end was never 
questioned. Yet, from the earliest period of this accu- 



92 RICHARD HICKMAN ME;NEFEE 

mulation, it was universally regarded with an eye not 
only of distrust and apprehension, but of absolute 
abhorrence. It was viewed as the dread fountain from 
which were destined to flow extravagance in the 
Federal expenditures, augmentation of Executive 
power, and all else tiiat was hostile to the Constitu- 
tion and dangerous to public liberty. Nor, sir, was 
it viewed in any false light. No fear was entertained 
that was not just; no abhorrence felt that the frightful 
visage of the evil did not fully warrant. The worst 
predictions of its pernicious influences fast ripened 
into fullillment. Government extravagance, impelled 
by this surplus, progressed without check, and with 
the utmost rapidity, to the point not only of profusion, 
but of protligacy, verging on actual corruption. Ex- 
ecutive power, already expanded to its fullest consti- 
tutional dimensions, seated on this same surplus, and 
wielded by a popular hand, wrenched from its co- 
ordinate departments every check, and demolished 
every balance designed for its restraint. Under an 
abused, if not unconstitutional power of removal from 
office, the independence of public officers, so necessary 
to a pure administration, broken down to the basest 
servility, and the whole corps transformed from ser- 
vants of the people and officers of the law into an army 
of mercenaries, obedient to Executive command, no 
matter what commanding. The Senate — prostrated, 
utterly. The Judiciary contemned, defied and prin- 
ciples advanced openly by the Executive abolishing 
every vestige of restraint through that department. 
Congress — a seducing patronage perpetually playing 
upon it — the veto lightly and capriciously hurled at 
it — the practice of withholding bills, insulting and de- 
frauding it — the purse violently wn-ested from it — the 
regulation of the currency usurped — its spirit broken — 
and at last subjugated and outstretched at the feet of 
the Executive. The people — deceived, despised, most 
grievously distressed. Their most highly favored 
measures — the bank bill, the land bill, the currency 



IN CONGRESS 93 

bill, successively perishing- under the veto, or that 
other more terrible power. Their currency, in rage, 
torn asunder by the hand that had snatched it from 
Congress. 

I do not insist, sir, that all these evils, or the most 
of them even, flowed from the surplus. But I do in- 
sist that the tendency of that surplus, whenever and 
however it operated — and in some form or^ other it 
incessantly operated — was pernicious in every aspect, 
and in the extreme. 

Was it, then, in the least surprising, that the states- 
men of the United States should have striven to relieve 
the Government of this surplus? The subject of its 
disposition accordingly became, as early as 1829, suf- 
ficiently important to find a place in the annual mes- 
sage of the President. 

As then, the period approaches when the ai)plication 
of revenue to the pavment of the public debt will 
cease, the disposition of the surplus will present a sub- 
ject for the serious consideration of Congress. 

That this recommendation may be duly estimated, 
it is of importance to remember that it was contained 
in his first messas^e. whilst flaminq; with ardor to 
signalize his Administration by a radical reformation 
of the Government, then supposed to teem with abuses. 
It was meant as a measure of purification. P>ut it is 
remarkable, that, notwithstanding the astonishing in- 
crease of the surplus subsequently, its disposition 
never afterwards attracted his attention : its employ- 
ment for evil having unfortunately entered into the 
plan of his Administration. 

The notice of Congress and the American People 
having been thus formally and ofificially drawn to a 
disposition of the surplus, it forms, up to the present 
year, a prominent subject of their consideration. In 
condemning the surplus as a lamentable evil, and in 
the propriety of some efifectual disposition of it, there 
Avas but one opinion. The Divisions found to prevail, 
related onlv to the mode of disposition. The Message 



94 RICHARD HICKMAN MHNKJ'EE 

of 1829 had distinctly announced the mode then most 
acceptable to the Executive. 

To avoid these evils, it appears to me that the most 
safe, just, and federal disposition which could be made 
of the surplus revenue, would be its apportionment 
among the States, 

And so fixed was his preference of that to all other 
modes, that, in his opinion, if that mode "should not 
be found warranted by the Constitution, it would be 
expedient to propose to the States an amendment au- 
thorizing it." This also occurred in the pure, or com- 
paratively pure, days of his Administration, and, like 
the subject of disposition itself, from having been a 
favored measure, soon became an object of his hatred. 
Other counsels predominated. Plans were formed 
under the eyes of the President, if not countenanced by 
him, for its employment in a vast system of military de- 
fences. Our whole national confines were to be walled 
in by fortifications; for the construction, arming, and 
preservation of which, countless millions would have 
been required, and for the manning of which an 
overgrown standing army kept up — alike useless and 
oppressive to the People, and dangerous to their lib- 
erties. Numerous other plans were conceived and 
pressed forward, as wrong in principle, though not so 
stupendous — all contemplating a disposition of the 
surplus by wasting it. To these schemes the Adminis- 
tration at length decidedly inclined, if forced to relin- 
quish the surplus at all. 

But, sir, the People of the United States were un- 
willing to abandon the subject, or even their favorite 
mode of disposing of the surplus, notwithstanding the 
abandonment of both by the Executive. They con- 
stantly and resolutely urged it. State after State 
pressed it — New York and Pennsylvania in the lead. 
Their sentiments were unequivocal for such a disposi- 
tion of the surplus as would relieve the Federal Gov- 
ernment of the dangers which its possession threat- 



IN CONGRESS 95 

ened, and, at the same time, render it beneficial to tlie 
State, by preserving instead of destroying it. 

Its abstraction from the Federal Government was 
the principle common to all these plans, and kept 
steadily in view. It looked to a divestment of the sur- 
plus as a sanitary measure — a depletion indispensable 
to the health of the Constitution. 

The principle of preserving the surplus for the States 
first acquired form and consistency in the land bill of 
Mr. Clay. That measure, from its first conception, 
was dear to the people and dear to their representatives. 
It received majorities in Congress seldom, if ever, com- 
manded by so grave a measure; and it might have 
been reasonably supposed that such majorities, backed 
by the almost undivided voice of the nation, would 
have ensured success. Yet, sir, it perished — under the 
frown of one man. Not by the veto, but that more de- 
testable engine of withholding bills. Its fate was 
calamitous to the country, and the calamity was ag- 
gravated by the general conviction that it was induced 
by no constitutional objection really existing in the 
breast of the Executive, but by the relentless hatred he 
bore the author of that measure, and an insuperable 
repugnance to do or permit anything tending to ad- 
vance his fame. 

The determination of the country to relieve the Gov- 
ernment of this malady did not, however, perish with 
that bill. It survived and flourished. It presented 
itself next in the form of the deposit bill of the Senate, 
in the spring of 1836, proposing to transfer the sur- 
plus to the States, upon the execution to the General 
Government of certificates of deposit bearing an in- 
terest, and neo;otiable bv the Secretarv of the Treasurv. 
That bill found its way to this House, and finally grew 
into the act of the 23rd of June, 1836. 

This, sir, is a concise view of the history of that act, 
and of the principles which lie at its foundation. That 
history and those principles, I think, prove — the de- 
bates upon it, the general understanding of the coun- 



g6 RICHARD HICKMAN mEnei^Ee: 

try, everything that attended its passage, all could 
characterize such a proceeding, its contemporaneous 
exposition drawn from every source, manifestly 
prove — that this transfer of money to the States was 
but colorably a deposit, having been meant, in fact, as 
distribution. Upon its constitutionality as an act of 
distribution, some, I know, expressed doubts ; and, for 
that reason, opposed it. We have, therefore, their au- 
thority for asserting that it involved distribution. The 
serious hues it assumes, between its first Germination 
in the land bill and its maturity, arose from a desire on 
the part of its friends to mould it to the views and 
constitutional opinions of those who favored the prin- 
ciple of distribution, but hesitated upon the mode of 
effecting it. Sir. that great act experienced much 
tribulation in struggling into life. The organs of the 
Executive, in both houses of Congress, denounced it — 
reviled it, warred against it in every shape, by all 
means, and without (|uarter. Their published speeches, 
now before me, breathe the utmost violence towards it. 
It is notorious that it experienced the frowns of the 
Executive; for even in the third generation, it labored, 
in his eye. under the curse which he had pronounced 
on its forefather, the land bill. And when, at last, 
after passing by most striking majorities, it was pre- 
sented to the Executive, a reluctant signature was 
wrung from him. He did not, in the language of the 
Constitution, approve the bill ; he barely tolerated its 
passage — the first and the last instance, during his ad- 
ministration, of his yielding, even in his caprices, to 
tlic will of Congress, of the people! He repented sign- 
ing the bill the moment after he had done it. His spirit 
of unbridled rule construed it into an act of Executive 
humiliation ; to soothe which he followed the act of 
signing the bill with an extraordinary annunciation, 
through the official paper, of his determination to pub- 
lish to the world the secret necessity which had forced 
it upon him. His growling and ill-suppressed wrath 
pursued the measure ever after. 



IN CONGRESS 97 

Those who regard this act with such utter abhor- 
rence, as involving a flagrant violation of the Consti- 
tution do not, in my opinion, justly discriminate. 
They maintain that it is unconstitutional to raise 
revemte for the mere purpose of distribution. Granted. 
But that doctrine has no application to the act in ques- 
tion; it proposed no such thing. The constitutional 
sin, if any, had been committed long before. The sur- 
plus was found in existence, and the act soug-ht to 
operate upon it. It contemplated no creation of a sur- 
plus. It looked to it, isolated from the means by which 
it had been raised. It formed no system, but termi- 
nated with the disposition of the existing surplus, no 
matter whether rightfully or wrongfully acquired. 
Congress has express power "to dispose of the prop- 
erty belonging to the United States." Does any just 
distinction exist, in a constitutional way. between 
property and money? The late President, in his far 
famed protest, thought not: and he had high author- 
ity, if not strong reason for his opinion. Besides, sir, 
a deposit of this surplus with the States, without in- 
terest, and for an indefinite time, must obviously en- 
counter the full force of the constitutional objections 
against a direct distribution. The right to distribute 
the use — the interest — of the surplus, cannot be as- 
sumed without yielding the right to distribute the sur- 
plus itself. Nor, in principle, can any difference be 
found between an investment of the surplus in stocks 
and a distribution of the dividends among the States, 
and a transfer of the principal surplus to the States 
without interest. In both cases, the States have its 
use without equivalent. 

But, sir, I forbear to discuss the constitutional ques- 
tion, or even to allude to the rights of the States to the 
surplus, founded on their interest in the public lands. 
It is not incumbent on those who oppose the bill under 
consideration, to maintain the constitutionality of the 
act of June, 1836. The true question is, was it not an 



98 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFE^ 

act of distribution, in fact, right or wrong? For the 
reasons assigned, I boldly claim that it was. 

Nor, sir, in reaching this conclusion, by compelling 
the letter of the act to yield to its nature and spirit, 
as manifested by the consideration to which I have 
referred, am I without authority or precedent in the 
legislation of Congress. This mode of interpretation, 
though from its nature seldom authorized, is well 
established. No government can be wise or just with- 
out it. Our tariff laws, especially our protective 
tariffs, are all thus interpreted. Investments of capital 
are made in the branches of industry invited into exist- 
ence under promises of protection, to which the faith 
of the Government is committed. A sudden repeal or 
disturbance of such laws, though not forbidden by 
their letter, would undoubtedly expose the Government 
to the just imputation of the perfidy and injustice. 
The great compromise act of 1833 pi'esents a striking 
illustration. It differs, upon its face, in no respect, 
from an ordinary act of Congress. Yet, who views it 
as such, liable to be extended, modified or repealed, at 
the pleasure of Congress? Who, that values his 
country's institutions or tranquility, can regard it other- 
wise than as a great and extraordinary act, sacred 
beyond just interference by Congress? Still its lan- 
guage imports no contract, no treaty, pledge, or even 
intimation. Whence, then, its inviolable character? 
It lies, sir, deeper than its language — in its history. It 
is not recited in that act that this Confederacy, being 
convulsed to its centre — a disruption of the Union 
impending — the national sword delivered over by Con- 
gress to a military Executive, who, if patriotic, was 
revengeful too, and flaming in his hand over a devoted 
State — the awful epoch opening in our constitutional 
history of subjugating by arms a sovereign State — the 
common blood of our ancestors, which had flowed in 
the revolution in the common cause of freedom, about 
to flow from the veins of their descendants, after little 
over half a century, in deadly civil strife — the sword 



IN CONGRESS 99 

or an ignominious gallows awaiting much of the 
genius and flower of the land — it is not recited. I 
repeat, that, in this portentous exigency, the compro- 
mise act came as an angel of peace, silently and invisi- 
bly, to compose and hush the trouble elements of the 
Republic! None of this appears in the act; yet it all 
existed. It was the offspring of all this. Nor is its 
nature the less sacred from this silence. Sir, its sub- 
lime spirit would have been degraded by the shackles 
of language. Too real to be embodied, it never- 
theless hovers around that act, and sanctifies it. 

I maintain, sir, that the act of June, 1836, though 
certainly not so important, is of a kindred nature to the 
one referred to ; that Congress has no more just right 
to disturb the one than the other ; and that its obliga- 
tion, in either case, to abstain from such an attempt, 
is derived from considerations more exalted, if pos- 
sible, than contract, treaty, or pledge — the duty, I 
mean, which it owes to the cause of free institutions, 
which could not fail to incur the deepest reproach by 
its violation. It is of no moment whether these cir- 
cumstances are allowed to enter into the construction 
of the act, or merely to afford reasons operating on 
the discretion of Congress. The mode in which they 
shall be permitted to influence our action. J am indif- 
ferent upon : their influence — decisive and irre- 
sistible — in some mode, is what I contend for. 

What action, by the States, ensued the passage of 
this law? In their reception of their respective pro- 
portions of the surplus, none of them either viewed or 
treated it as a deposit merely : though, for the sake 
of the appearances which the act had been compelled 
to assume, they, too, obsen-ed the forms prescribed by 
it. The general policy adopted by them respecting the 
application of the surplus, was the same. In the West, 
in particular, as in all new countries, a great demand 
existed for capital, the want of which repressed their 
enterprise, and stifled the development of the boundless 
resources profusely scattered around them. This act 



lOO RICHARD HICKMAN MENEE'EE 

was hailed as measural)ly supplying- that capital. 
Their Leg^islatiires, previously limited to the means 
afforded by direct taxation, felt freed from their 
former restraints, and at once launched into a bold and 
incautious policy. Popular instruction and internal 
improvement were the predominating- objects of their 
regard. The whole energy of their legislation was 
bent towards laying, deep and broad, the foundations 
of that policy : and the systems devised for the pur- 
pose, became intimately connected with every ramifi- 
cation of business. They, in many instances, were 
connected with the local banks, by an investment of the 
surplus in capital ; through the banks, with the trading 
and mercantile interests; and ultimately with all 
classes. 

In Kentucky, struggle after struggle had been made, 
through a series of years, for the establishment of an 
efficient system of public instruction. Scheme after 
scheme had been devised ; but they all failed for want 
of money to sustain them. The occasion presented 
by this act was embraced with the utmost avidity ; and 
upon it now rests a liberal and enlightened system, to 
which the poorer classes of her citizens have been 
taught to look as the only inheritance of their children. 

Although a system of internal improvements was in 
operation in Kentucky prior to the act of 1836, yet, 
from deficiency of means, it was unavoidably partial 
and inefficient. Under the impulse of that act, it 
sprang at once into strength and activity, and promised 
its advantages, at no distant day. in the improvement 
of rivers, and the construction of roads and canals, 
throughout every section of that great State. 

In these systems, sir, the people of Kentucky not 
only feel a deep interest, but have embarked in them 
their affections and the tenderest hopes of their pos- 
terity. 

The influence of this act on the Western country 
could never, I am sure, have been duly estimated by 



IN CONGRESS lOI 

the friends of this bill. Tested by the ordinary prog- 
ress of nations, the States, at one session of their 
Legislatures, advanced nearly half a century. They 
literally bounded forward, as if steam-impelled. 

Its operations in other respects, to which too much 
importance can not, in my opinion, be attached, were 
peculiarly beneficial. The advantages of the ordinary 
legislation of Congress were, for the most part, general 
and remote. Many of the States, from their interior 
position, and policy of this Government of doubtful 
justice, were excluded from a participation in the 
annual expenditures of the millions which they con- 
tribute their full share to raise. They were all, or 
nearly all, absorbed on the seaboard. Although the 
power of Congress to regulate commerce "with foreign 
nations" and "among the several States." is granted 
in the same clause of the Constitution, it had been e.x- 
ercised almost exclusively in reference to commerce 
with foreign nations. Our whole Atlantic frontier 
attests it. It is not wonderful, therefore, that discon- 
tents should have arisen in the West, from this sup- 
posed inequality of legislation. But this act instantly 
dispelled them. It was hailed with general joy, and 
was deemed a measure of justice, though slow in its 
arrival. It came home to them, was embraced, domes- 
ticated, and cherished, as it deserved to be, as the 
future pageant of a means of most beneficent legisla- 
tion. And, sir, it now stands indissolubly incorporated 
w^ith their domestic policy, which must perish under its 
withdrawal, and droop, if not perish, under its sus- 
pension. 

Taking into view this application of the surplus by 
the States, and supposing it liable, as contended for, to 
be recalled, at the pleasure of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, is it not plain that the act, instead of abridg- 
ing executive power, as was intended, must greatly 
augment it? It confers upon the Executive the most 
dangerous power over the States — no less a power 
than that of direct taxation; for to that a recall of the 



I02 RICHARD HICKMAN MKNEFEK 

surplus must lead, the States having no other expe- 
dient to sustain the interests shown thus to rest upon 
it. 

Even admitting then, that Congress may have the 
right to extort from the States the surplus already paid, 
and to withhold that now due, the exercise of the right 
would not be warranted, except on the most urgent and 
irresistible necessity. 

What, sir, is that necessity, as alleged by the Presi- 
dent and assumed by this bill ? It is, that the Treasury 
of the United States is unable to sustain itself in its 
embarrassments without resorting to the fourth instal- 
ment intended for the States, amounting to $9,367,- 
214.98; the proportion of which transferable to Ken- 
tucky being nearly half a million. I have looked in 
the spirit of sincere inquiry into the evidences upon 
which this alleged financial necessity rests, and have 
looked in vain. The report of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, submitted to Congress at the opening of the 
session, though obviously meant to magnify, as far as 
possible, our financial difticulties, has, I think, utterly 
failed to establish it. Information derived officially 
from that Department since, under resolutions of this 
House, still further weakens the attempt. 

Without entering minutely into the condition of the 
Treasury, it is, in my opinion, plainly demonstrable, 
that by converting into cash (which can readily be 
done) the bonds held by the Government on the Penn- 
sylvania Bank of the United States, amounting to 
$7,946,356.16 besides interest, means may be com- 
manded fully adequate to the wants of the Treasury, 
without violating the act of 1836. 

Without aiming at exact accuracy, the following is 
believed to present, substantially, the condition of the 
Treasury : 

It is chargeable with — 



IN CONGRESS 103 

Balances of appropriations, on the 

31st of December 1836, $16,752,283.09 

Appropriations for 1837, 28,575,837. 10 

Other appropriations, specific and in- 
definite, 2,724,250.40 

October instahnent due the States, . . 9,367,214.98 



Making, $57,519,585-57 

From which deduct — 

Amount paid up to 
nth September, 
1837. • $24,077,031.22 

Postponed appropri- 
ations, 15,000,000.00 

Estimated receipts 
for the balance of 
the year, 4,500,000.00 

In banks, the mint, 
and hands of col- 
lecting officers, .. 14,596,311.00 



Making, 58,173,342.22 



Leaving excess of means of $ 563.756.65 

To which, in case of obstacles in col- 
lecting from banks, or other causes 

of unavailability, &c. add the bonds 

(readily convertible into cash) held 

by the Government on the Bank of 

the United States, payable in four 

annual instalments, commencing on 

tjie ist of October next, deducting 

the interest of the navy pension 

fund, 7.204.995 . 16 

Exhibiting a total excess of means of $ 7,858.751 .81 

The proposition to withhold this surplus would be 
more tolerable if it were intended, to prevent the crea- 



104 RICHARD HICKMAN MENKI^E^ 

tion of a new national debt; my aversion to which, if 
any thing could, might induce me to support it. But 
it intends no such thing. The President boldly 
announces to the people of the United States the start- 
ling purpose of fixing upon them a new public debt — 
not in a direct form, but under the insidious disguise 
of Treasury notes. The employment of these notes is, 
in the end, more pernicious than any other expedient 
of finance that could be adopted. Under its cover a 
public debt steals upon the nation by degrees, imper- 
ceptible to the people; and the first signal of approach- 
ing danger is, depreciated Govenunent paper, and 
public credit prostrated, with impending burdens and 
taxation in the rear. 

The plan of the Administration, then being not only 
to withhold the fourth instalment, but to lay the foun- 
dations of a public debt also, if a deficit in the means of 
the Treasury should be found actually to exist, why 
may it not be supplied by an increased issue of 
Treasury notes? The principle having been assumed, 
a mere question of amount can be of but secondary 
consideration. 

Sir, if the Treasury were reduced to the greatest 
conceivable wretchedness, the present times and condi- 
tion of the country imperatively forbid the measure 
now proposed. The opening of a new Administra- 
tion, or perhaps, more properly the beginning of a con- 
tinuation of the past Administration, finds this nation 
plunged into universal distress, reaching, indiscrimi- 
nately, every class, condition, and pursuit of life. 

The actual condition of the country has, until veiy 
recently, been a subject of much controversy. By one 
party it has been represented as I have described it. 
The Administration took the ground as a party meas- 
ure — that the country was, in fact, in the highest state 
of prosperity; the official organ taking the lead, by 
declaring that "there was no pressure which an honest 
man need fear." The thousand satellites revolving 
around it, reflecting the light, or darkness, thus im- 



IN CONGRESS 105 

parted, united in the strain. Under these siren songs, 
multitudes of the friends of the Administration, 
shutting their eyes to what was transpiring around 
them, and closing their ears to the cries of surrounding 
misery, remained insensible of the real condition of the 
country, until themselves fell victims to the distress, 
the existence of which they were taught to deny. The 
suspension of specie payments by the banks, the over- 
throw of the financial system, founded on the deposit 
banks, and the Proclamation of the President, conven- 
ing Congress, to consider of ''grave and weigiity 
matters," bred some suspicion among the faithful that 
all was not well; and the Message fully settled the 
question. The President's manner of unfolding, 
through the Message, the state of the country, is singu- 
lar, though probably characteristic. He breaks to the 
nation, the subjects of its griefs with a parental tender- 
ness, and by degrees. The blunt and frightful truth, 
it was feared, might shock the sensibilities of a party 
long habituated to the deafening note of ''unexampled 
prosperity." "Embarrassments in the pecuniary 
affairs of the country"^ are first gently hinted at ; "the 
difficulties experienced." shortly after grow into 
"unexpected exigencies" ; and they, again, into "a 
revulsion." "Destructive consequences" "wide- 
spread and calamitous embarrassments." "plunged into 
distress," and "disastrous derangement," are revealed 
in rapid and dread succession; and the dismal climax 
at last terminated in an "overwhelming catastrophe!" 
His country's misery is recurred to with a mournful 
frequency; and every touch deepens the picture, and. 
as the ghost of a nation's murdered prosperity rises up 
before him, he has hardly resolution to plead, like 
Macbeth, 

Thou can'st not say I did it; shake not 
Thy gory locks at me. 

He confesses "the unpromising truth," and his con- 
fession, like those of another class, less enviably ele- 



Extract from the Message. 



I06 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

vated, dwells with a melancholy satisfaction upon the 
most dreadful particulars; and, as in other cases, the 
fulness of the confession is relied on, in his applica- 
tion for mercy, where he reminds the People that they 
will "never desert a public functionary laboring for the 
public good." Of the pecuniary condition of the 
country then, we have the highest official information. 

Nor is its condition in other respects less deplorable. 
Pillar after pillar, and column after column, of the 
Federal Constitution, struck down by repeated 
assaults, and now in fragments at the feet of the 
Executive; an extravagant and profuse, if not cor- 
rupt, administration of the Government; an Indian 
war prosecuting at enormous expense, with extreme 
imbecility, and disgracefully to the American arms — 
all subjects of loud and just complaint by the people. 
The standard of national morals lowered, under the 
example of lawlessness set by the Federal Executive, 
and the influence of a policy which convulsed and upset 
the regular business of the country, by turning loose 
a spirit of wild and reckless speculation ; riots, mobs, 
insubordination, and bloodshed, marking almost every 
day of our recent history. In short, sir, when the con- 
dition of the country is such, that the Secretary of the 
Treasury, enabled to discover no green spot in its 
affairs not blighted by "the evils occasioned by the 
waywardness of man," with every appearance of com- 
placency consoles himself with the reflection that the 
country has not fallen a victim to some great "physical 
calamity" ! When it has come to be a subject of offi- 
cial gratulation that our beloved country is spared us! 
That no tornado has overswept it! No pestilence de- 
populated or earthquakes swallowed it ! To which, let 
it be added, that the people are now looking to Con- 
gress with an intense and almost morbid anxiety for re- 
lief — speedy and effectual. 

Now, sir, suppose, in the midst of all these troubled 
and stormy elements, roused by the misdeeds of our 
own rulers, and these just expectations of relief, that 



IN CONGRESS 107 

the government, instead of administering that rehef, 
shall go forth, as this bill proposes, with sword and 
torch in hand, in quest of that same dreaded — 
detested — discarded surplus; threatening to tear up 
by the roots the most cherished systems of the States, 
by holding out an early abandonment of them for want 
of means, or the dismal prospect of supporting them 
by grievous and interminable taxation ; and when it is 
remembered, too, that with the State Governments, 
taxation is such in fact — direct — and seen and felt in 
every step of its progress ; not like that of the Federal 
Government, unperceived and unknown by the people, 
except as announced from time to time in the reports 
on the finances — can any one doubt, under such cir- 
cumstances, its disastrous tendency, and utter inexpe- 
diency as a financial measure? But it is of no purpose 
to enlarge on this view of the question. 

In representing the effects of this bill, if passed, 
upon the States, I speak of it as looking to the entire 
revocation of the act of June, 1836. For, sir, I now 
warn the States that if that act is suffered to be vio- 
lated in one jot or tittle, it is lost to them — wholly — and 
forever. Once divest it of the sacred character which 
I have ascribed to it, construe it as a mere deposit act, 
and treat the States as other officers of the Treasury 
with funds in their possession and it will be infatuation 
to hope to retain, for any considerable time, the money 
already received. Their only deliverance lies in the 
defeat of this bill ; for even if the repayment of the 
amount now with States should not be shortly exacted, 
the act will be so far shaken by this bill that they can- 
not wisely or prudently rest any public measures upon 
it. 

Yet, sir, intense as might be their suffering under 
such an operation, the people might endure it with 
some appearance of patience, if its object were dif- 
ferent. But it is one of a system of measures devised 
by the Administration, and recommended in the Mes- 
sage, and now in the shape of bills before Congress, 



I08 RICHARD HICKMAN MENKFE^E) 

to sustain and relieve the Government, without the 
least reference to the fate of the people. To justify 
himself in this selfish and unnatural policy, and to 
silence the murmurings of a suffering and supplicating 
people, they are met with the chilling and repulsive in- 
formation by the President that "they look to the Gov- 
ernment for too much," and that the Constitution was 
framed on "a sounder principle" than to authorize Con- 
gress to extend them relief; in other words, that the 
Government, which they have lately seen prove itself 
so almighty for the purpose of mischief and distress, 
is, under this self denying doctrine, utterly imbecile 
for the purposes of good. Its own relief and preser- 
vation alone occupy the mind of the Government. 
The "grave and weighty matters" which Congress has 
been convened to consider, thus resolve themselves into 
measures to discharge in specie the demands of all the 
office-holders, contractors, and other dependants on the 
Treasury, from the Chief Magistrate down: being, 
substantially, an increase of their compensations, to 
the extent of the premium on specie, now between eight 
and ten per cent. 

I trust, Mr. Speaker—/ knozu—i\mt I sympathize 
from my very heart with the people in their present ad- 
versity, and deeply deplore, "more in sorrow than in 
anger," the folly and madness which inflicted it. I 
stand ready, by my vote, to alleviate it by every means 
known to the Constitution. I condemn and sincerely 
lament the determination of the Government to sepa- 
rate, in the hour of tribulation, its fortunes from those 
of the people, and, from its secure position on a specie 
medium, witness without emotion their calamities. 
But, sir, in the midst of this general gloom there is one 
ray of consolation. The Government, under the same 
policy which has brought distress upon the people, is 
itself fast approaching a point of financial weakness, 
which, under wise counsels in this House, may ensure 
a real, substantial and permanent reformation of its 
abuses. The extravagance and profusion of expendi- 



IN CONGRESS 109 

tures which have marked the late years of its Admin- 
istration, and in greater or less degrees, forced the 
State Governments into an imitation of its pernicious 
example, may be effectually arrested. Its retrenching 
influence has already been manifested in a report of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, under a resolution of this 
House, that appropriations of former years, to the 
amount of fifteen millions of dollars, might be post- 
poned without material injury to the public sen'ice. 
Governments, like individuals, are not sensible of what 
they can dispense with, untfl instructed by the hand of 
adversity. In this respect, the present exigency is 
peculiarly favorable. Maintain the inviolability of the 
act of June, 1836, and the fourth instalment may be 
held up in terrorem over the Government. The States 
will be enlisted on the side of retrenchment and 
economy, as the only means of securing the benefits of 
that instalment, and of escaping the load of direct taxa- 
tion which awaits a recall of the instalments already 
received ; and that recall must ensue at no distant dav, 
if the Government persists in its profusion. I am 
solemnly convinced that the Federal Government, 
administered with an eye to direct taxation for its sup- 
port, would be conducted, in all its constitutional 
efficiency, upon an annual expenditure of twelve 
millions and a half of dollars — scarcely half the sum 
now applied. Its tendency to abridge Executive 
power — the great bane of the Republic — is no less 
apparent. 

For one, then, sir, I embrace the occasion ; and, 
without respect to the course of others, shall cleave to 
it resolutely, obstinately, and to the very last. I had 
no hand in producing the wreck our finances now 
exhibit. I view it as an e>;isting "result of the dis- 
asters of the times." and but seek to convert it into 
an instrument of good. Left to its own action — un- 
smitten itself by the hand of misfortune — the Govern- 
ment would never have returned of choice, nor could 
have been brought back by force, to the simplicity and 



no RICHARD HICKMAN MENKE'EE) 

economy which he at the root of our institutions ; for 
no Government, when once fleshed into profusion, is 
ever satiated, but rushes on, ravening more vora- 
ciously every step it advances : of. which the history of 
our own affords trumpet-tongued proofs. In this 
House all revenue bills must originate. It is the con- 
stitutional guardian of the people's money. . I wish to 
make it such in fact. Of late years, the voting of 
millions at a time, without debate, inquiry, official esti- 
mates, or time for deliberations, has been a scene regu- 
larly recurring at the close of every session of Con- 
gress. This should not be: and I entertain a strong, 
and, I trust, patriotic anxiety to witness the day, at no 
distant period, when a demand by the Administration 
for money shall involve high and substantial respon- 
sibility; an event inconceivably important to the purity 
of the Government. 

Considerations like these, if no others existed, would 
at once decide my opposition to this bill. But I am 
taxing too heavily the attention you have so flatter- 
inHv extended. I take leave, sir, of this wretched 
expedient. 

' At the evening session of Friday, October 6, 
1837, the House resumed the consideration of 
the bill reported from the committee of the 
whole on the proposition "to authorize the is- 
sue of Treasury notes" — the Treasury Note 
Bill. Menefee arose and said it was believed 
that the nature of the bill was such that it 

' would not affect the currency. But he would 
ask if the gentlemen who said so had not been 
rebuked officially for so doing. He went on 
to show why he thought the notes would form 
a constituent part of the currency, and de- 
clared his objection to the measure, as giving 
a dangerous power to the President. The bill, 



IN CONGRESS III 

however, to issue $10,000,000 in notes was 
finally passed. 

On October 10 the Merchant's Bonds Bill, 
which was a "bill extending the time on 
merchant's bonds," came up. The ques- 
tion pending was, on concurring with the 
committee in the following amendment: 
"And it be further enacted, That a credit of three 
to six months shall be allowed on the dutv on 
all merchandise which shall be imported on or 
before the first day of November next, upon 
which the duties are payable in cash, and that 
the bonds used for such duties shall be pav- 
able in equal instalments, bearing interest at 
the rate of six per cent, per annum, and shall 
be in the form and upon the conditions pre- 
scribed by existing laws and by this act." This 
was adopted and then Menefee moved to add 
to the third section, the following proviso: 
''Provided further. That all others, in any wise 
indebted to the United States, except for the 
public moneys used, shall be entitled to the 
benefits of this act, on the terms and considera- 
tions hereinbefore prescribed." His proviso 
was adopted. Adams and Dunn offered 
further amendments which were rejected, and 
the bill was ordered to be read a third time and 
was then passed. 

On October 14 the clerk read several reso- 
lutions of the Senate, authorizing the printing 
of certain documents relating to the cession of 
the District of Columbia to the United States 
and other subjects. Menefee with Duncan and 
Gushing made some remarks on these resolu- 
tions. 



112 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEK 

On October 16, 1837, the extra session of the 
25th Congress adjourned, after having passed 
acts to canse the distribution of the revenues 
among the States to cease, to authorize the is- 
sue of $10,000,000 in Treasury notes, and to 
give merchants more time on the revenue 
bonds. 

While in Washington, ]\Ienefee boarded at 
one of the Congressional messes, as was the 
custom at that day among public men/ He 
boarded at the same mess with Henry Clay, 
and Clay gave Mrs. Menefee a little pink vase 
that is still in the iMenefee family. After 
the extra session was over, Menefee returned 
to Kentucky, where he remained about a 
month, and then returned to Washington for 
the regular session of Congress. 

On Monday, December 4, 1837, Speaker 
Polk called the House to order, at noon of that 
day. Menefee began the regular session as he 
had begun the extra session, by presenting a 
petition or memorial. 

When Van Buren entered office there was 
an insurrection in progress against the author- 
ity of Great Britain in Lower Canada. Lyon 
McKenzie had started a sympathetic revolt, 
and being driven from the country, made good 
his escape to Buffalo, New York. He sur- 
rounded himself with 310 ''patriots." The 
chief of the "patriots" was R. Van Rensselaer, 
and he, with 150 supernumeraries, seized 
and fortified Navy Island. The steamboat 
Caroline, owned by William Wells, of Buffalo, 
was used to carry arms and provisions for the 
insurgents from the New York shore to the 

* B. H. Wise's Life of Henry A. Wise. 



IN CONGRESS 113 

island. On the night of December 28, 1837, 
this boat was lying at Fort Schlosser on the 
Niagara River. There were thirty-three sail- 
ors on board. At midnight, between seventy 
and eighty armed men put out from the Chip- 
peway Coast, in boats, and fell upon the 
Caroline's crew, and killed five of the sailors. 
The boat was detached from the wharf to 
which it had been secured, set on fire, and per- 
mitted to dash down the Niagara Falls. This 
outrage created great excitement in the United 
States.^ Governor Marcy, of New York, sent 
State troops to the scene of disturbance, and 
President Van Buren sent Gen. Winfield Scott 
with orders to command all United States 
troops on the island. Navy Island was evacu- 
ated by the insurgents on January 13, 1838, and 
their leaders, after crossing to the American 
shore, surrendered to the United States Dis- 
trict Attorney. Van Buren sent a special 
message to Congress on January 5 in regard 
to the attack on the Caroline, and on Alonday, 
January 8, 1838, Richard H. Menefee arose and 
delivered his speech. This speech is his great- 
est congressional effort. The first expression 
in American oratory, of Anglo-American 
brotherhood, is found in this speech. 

mendfee's speech on the attack on the 

caroline.^ 

Mr. speaker: Any debate on the present proposi- 
tion, which was merely to refer the messag^e of tlie 
President to the appropriate committees, invoh'ing no 



^ Marcy's message to the New York Legislature. 
^ Speech in Niles's National Register, January 27, 1838. 
8 



114 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFKE 

consideration of the merits of the subject to which it 
relates, would, in my opinion, be premature, and cal- 
culated to produce injury without the possibility of 
any corresponding good. It would, I am sure, have 
been impossible for the house to have listened to the 
debates which have thus arisen, unfortunately, with- 
out at least a portion of the surprise and regret with 
which they have inspired me. 

The attack on the Caroline, if made as described, 
may warrant much of the excitement represented as 
now prevailing amongst the people of New York, and 
even justify a deep and general sensation in that 
quarter. But the liability of transactions of this sort 
to be perverted and exaggerated on the one hand, 
whilst the possible circumstances of justification or 
palliation on the other are suppressed, must admonish 
us of the hazard of founding either direct legislation 
or public declarations of opinion by individuals so 
nearly connected with government as ourselves, upon 
facts which have so recently occurred, and are so im- 
perfectly ascertained. 

Confining ourselves to facts, upon the existence of 
which there is no dispute, and upon which, of course, 
an opinion may be now allowed, it is substantially 
acknowledged by our government, in the message of 
the President of the 5th inst., his letters to the Execu- 
tives of New York and Vermont, his proclamation, 
and in his instructions to the law officers of the United 
States, that our citizens on the Canada frontier are 
strongly disposed to violate their neutral obligations to 
Great Britain, as those obligations are recognized by 
this government, and that movements of a hostile 
character were already made by them ; that the execu- 
tive is incapable, under the existing laws, of enforcing 
these obligations, and therefore appeals to Congress 
to arm him with the requisite powers. In none of these 
documents, it will be perceived, was the slightest ap- 
prehension expressed of a violation by the subjects of 
Great Britain of their neutral obligations to us. The 



IN CONGRESS 115 

elements of mischief were admitted to be confined 
exclusively to our people, and every measure of the 
executive was designed for their repression. 

If citizens of the United States have thus violated 
their neutral obligations, that of itself constitutes, on 
every principle, an offence complete against Great Bri- 
tain, for which this nation is responsible. It is of 
no avail, in ascertaining the existence of the offence on 
the one hand, or of our national responsibihty on the 
other, that those violations occurred without the in- 
stigation or countenance of the government, and even 
in violation of the positive municipal laws of the 
United States. As between foreign nations and this 
ours is answerable if it fail to enforce an observance 
by its citizens of our national obligations. Any other 
rule would render neutrality insecure, and the mainte- 
nance of peace between contiguous nations difficult if 
not impracticable, left, as it thus would be, at the 
mercy of the irritations and collisions unavoidably in- 
cident to a frontier. It is national responsibility only, 
which, by exciting the vigilance of government over 
unauthorized acts of its citizens, can check and repress 
this spirit and thereby avert war. Such our position, 
and our responsibilities, as already acknowledged by 
the Government. 

It must be recollected, sir, that a resort to arms, on 
account of illegal acts of the citizens, cannot be con- 
sidered until reparation by his government has been 
demanded and refused. 

It is now represented that the subjects of Great Bri- 
tain have, likewise, in the case of the Caroline, violated 
their neutral obligations to us. under circumstances of 
great atrocity. Still, so far as appears, it was, as in 
the case of our citizens, an illegal and unauthorized act 
of the subjects of Great Britain. We have no more 
just right to presume, in the absence of the fullest 
proof to the contrary, that this proceeding of British 
subjects was instigated, or in the remotest manner 
countenanced, by the British authorities, than would 



Il6 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEl'EE 

their government, to presume, under like circum- 
stances, that the officially acknowledged aggressions 
against them by our citizens was the deliberate act of 
our Government. 

It is reasonable to conclude, from the present state 
of our information, that neutrality has been violated 
and wrong done by the people of both nations. For 
the honor of ours, I hope it may ultimately appear that 
the offence of our people has not been so flagrant as 
that of the opposite side. Yet the information already 
communicated by the executive leaves no room to hope 
that the first aggressions did not proceed from us^ and 
serve as a pretext, though I can hardly suppose a justi- 
fication, of what succeeded. If we have been most 
wronged, it is certain that Great Britain has been first 
wronged. 

Now in the midst of this popular ferment, before the 
governments on either side are implicated, does not 
every consideration recommend self-possession and 
wisdom here? The right of individuals, and even 
nations, to sympathize in the cause, real or imagined, 
of freedom, is not contested ; but it must be exercised 
in subserviency to justice and law, not at their expense. 
In an exigency like this, the public have a right to look 
to Congress for a proper tone of opinion. It must be 
expected that the lead will be taken, to a great extent, 
by this house, the proceedings of which (our debates 
forming a part) will necessarily be regarded with 
peculiar interest by both nations. It is therefore, I 
conceive, of the highest consequence that our views, as 
here publicly expressed, should rise to the magnitude 
as well as the dignity of the occasion ; and that the 
subject should be placed at once beyond the influence, 
and, if possible, the suspicion of the influence of 
passion or precipitation. Not that I imagine there is 
danger of war with Great Britain : of that, gentlemen 
may dismiss all apprehensions; for, sir, there will be 
no war over these border collisions. To imagine such 
an event, is ridiculous and absurd. A course of in- 



IN CONGRESS 117 

temperate discussion here, may, nevertheless, greatly 
embarrass the two governments, by inllaming still 
further the public mind, already too liighly excited. 
But it will merely embarrass; for war, I repeat, will 
not come. 

It would be superfluous to enter at large, in the 
present state of the controversy, into the numerous 
reasons which pronounce such a war utterly out of the 
question. It is enough, almost, to remember that the 
spirit of the age, and the religious and moral as well as 
political illumination of the world, stand opposed to 
war, especially between highly civilized Christian na- 
tions. The advance of mankind could by nothing be 
more strikingly illustrated than the prevailing aversion 
and abhorrence with which war is now regarded, 
except in the last deplorable extremity, as the only 
means of securing repose in honorable peace. War is 
now viewed as but an instrument of peace. In this 
condition of the world, is it to be credited that the two 
nations foremost, by universal acknowledgment, in 
the career of civilization, religion, liberty, and law can 
except from absolute madness engage in the barbarities 
of war? Why should they? Is it not admitted, by 
both, that war is the last dread resort; not to be 
adopted till every peaceful appeal for justice has 
failed? Has such failure actually occurred? Has 
either evinced an intention to deny to the other the 
fullest justice, be their mutual injuries what they may? 
Who can, without a blush, suppose the existence of 
such an intention on our part possible? Does not 
generosity, then, as well as justice, require us, at the 
same time, to presume that a similar desire for peace. 
whilst it demands justice, animates the government of 
Great Britain? 

If any great contested principle of international 
law or national rights were involved in the existing 
difficulties between the two powers, such as the right of 
search on the high seas, or of impressment of seamen. 
as claimed and exercised by Great Britain prior to the 



Il8 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

war of 1812, their repose, and probably their peace 
might be disturbed now, as then. These were the 
principles contested by us from the first ; and presented 
a case where peace was neither secured nor honorable, 
so long as the pretensions of Great Britain under them 
were tolerated. Tliat war, on our part, was, I never 
doubted, both justifiable and necessary. That justifi- 
cation and necessity, however, did not rest on a de- 
tached aggression on an acknowledged right, but on the 
assertion by Great Britain, I repeat, of principles, with 
the maintenance of which she deemed her existence 
almost to be identified, but which our honor and in- 
terests as strongly impelled us not to tolerate; princi- 
ples which would have authorized her to follow up her 
aggressions indefinitely, as to repetition and duration. 
Granting, therefore, the late aggressions, on either 
side, to have been as atrocious as the ascertained facts 
will warrant, or as the imagination of the most bellig- 
erent there can paint, still there is no contested princi- 
ple involved. Neither power claims, or ever has 
claimed, the right to violate, in this manner, the prop- 
erty, or lives, or territory, of the other. Both, on the 
contrary, now admit, as they always have done, that 
such violations are wrong, for the reparation of which 
the respective powers are liable. All the principles 
which govern the present difficulty are simple and 
admitted. It is but a question about facts, which, 
when ascertained and reciprocally presented, are dis- 
posed of by uncontested principles common to both 
powers. Can either then, I demand, without national 
reproach, for an instant, in such a case, tolerate the 
idea that a resort to arms is possible? They are hold- 
ing themselves aloft among the nations of the earth as 
the patrons and champions of human civilization and 
liberty throughout the world. The liberal spirit which 
they have breathed, and are daily breathing, into 
the institutions of mankind, has placed them already 
far beyond all others — and side by side — in the noble 
work of advancing the high destinies of our race. 



IN CONGRESS 119 

Extinguish these Hghts ; or turn them to glare on each 
other in barbarity and blood, instead of shining in 
co-operation, as heretofore, for the illumination of 
mankind ; and can the vision of any be so confined and 
imperfect as not to foresee the disasters to which such 
an event would expose the world; or, at least, all it 
contains worth preserving — its Christian civilized 
liberty ? 

But, sir, I repeat, we shall have no war with Great 
Britain. Nations under such high responsibilities to 
mankind, dare not go to war on an occasion like this. 
They cannot, without a portion of dishonor and dis- 
grace, encounter and breast, as they would by a war, 
the enlightened and liberal spirit of this age, which 
their own efforts and example have so largely contrib- 
uted to produce, and now mainly impel. 

Their characters and positions, in other respects, 
give the amplest assurance that a resort to force is not 
now to be expected. No two separate nations have. 
perhaps, ever existed, at any period of time, between 
whom has prevailed, of wdiat is valuable, so much that 
is common to both. Language, laws, religion, an- 
cestry, historical renown, and the most intimate rela- 
tions of commerce and pervading interchange of cap- 
ital in other forms — all conspire to condemn war 
betw^een them as peculiarly calamitous and unnatural. 
It is true, as I have stated, that, notwithstanding all 
this, war has, in fact, occurred between them. Yet 
this multitude of kindred principles soon triumphed 
over temporary hostility, and reunited them, as the 
necessities of their relative positions ever must, as the 
high priests of human civilization and freedom. 
They defy their destiny, when their arms are turned 
against each other. The cause of human nature suf- 
fers under every blow they strike. 

Such being the relative positions of the two powers, 
for the reasons and for the high purposes which I have 
mentioned, the simple fact that difficulties like the 
present now exist must strike every observer as to a 



120 RICHARD HICKMAN M^NEFEE) 

high degree extraordinary. Whence, then, these dis- 
turbances, whilst every enhghtened motive is against 
them ? 

It was admitted by the President, almost in terms, 
before the affair of the Caroline, that our citizens, by 
the violation of their neutral obligations, were endan- 
gering the peace of the two nations ; and, in effect, that 
retaliation by the other side might be provoked. The 
danger was alleged by him to proceed, in the first in- 
stance, from our citizens, and the enactment of laws 
recommended to restrain them ; treating throughout 
as a domestic cause of difhculty to be removed by 
domestic measures. What, I ask, produced this law- 
less spirit amongst our people? For in that, and not 
in the defenceless state of our frontier, or in the seizure 
of the Caroline^ lies the true cause of this emergency. 
Pains, I know, have been taken in this debate, by the 
friends of the administration, to cast the whole blame 
upon the people, to the entire exoneration of the gov- 
ernment; a course not without a late precedent, from 
the same quarter, on another subject. This con- 
demnation of the people is scarcely less unjust than 
the acquittal of the government. These errors of the 
people, (for such I readily admit them to be) find 
their palliation, if not justification, in the antecedent 
and more flagrant wrongs of the government itself. 
When the head of a government like ours becomes 
lawless and unjust, upon whom, in the eye of reason, 
rests the blame, if those who lived under that govern- 
ment, taking shelter under the example, are infected 
with a similar spirit ? Is not the influence natural and 
unavoidable? Does not the moral condition, in many 
respects, of our people, mournfully attest that a law- 
less spirit has found its way into our national councils ? 
To all those whose judgments, and affections, and im- 
aginations, are united as they ought to be, and as I 
hope mine are, in devotion to their country, it is a 
source of humiliation and pain to be compelled to 
arraign their government in a matter so delicate as 



IN CONGRESS 121 

the conduct of its relations towards a foreign nation. 
But, sir, there is a stage in the progress of inter- 
national controversies when to condemn one's own 
government, if in the wrong, is not only becoming the 
citizen, but rises into a solemn duty of patriotism. 
Not to do so, would be blindly to sanction and follow 
whithersoever the caprice, ambition or injustice, of 
weak or wicked rulers might lead. The voice of the 
citizen exposing and denouncing pernicious and un- 
just measures towards other nations, should be raised 
with freedom and constancy, up to the period when 
the appeal to arms is actually made, or becomes 
clearly inevitable. Then the patriotic citizen adheres 
to, and maintains to the utmost, his country, right or 
wrong. Always a delicate ground, it is peculiarly so 
from the critical relations now existing between this 
government and Mexico. Considerations of national 
pride might even now restrain the expression of senti- 
ments which I most firmly entertain, were not the con- 
tending nation, Mexico, whose weakness, from inter- 
nal dissensions, is so generally conceded that nothing 
I might say could be construed into undue concession 
to her power. And, in the recurrence which I shall 
make to the conduct of our government towards 
Mexico during the Texas revolt, nothing of unfriend- 
liness or disrespect is intended towards the new re- 
public which has emerged from the revolt. On the 
contrary, it is the profound wish of my heart that its 
political institutions may be speedily and firmly con- 
solidated, and that its civil career may be as tranquil 
and prosperous as its military has been striking and 
glorious. 

Now, sir, I extend my view beyond what has re- 
cently transpired on the Canadian frontier, and. in 
searching for the real causes and authors of this crisis, 
recognize them in the conduct of our own administra- 
tion. Them I now here solemnly accuse, and hold, as 
the country and mankind will, responsible, to the last 
degree, for every consequence of treasure, or blood, 



122 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFES 

or fame, to which the present disturbances may lead; 
as fairly and naturally resulting from its dishonorable 
and perfidious failure to enforce our neutral and ex- 
press treaty obligations to Mexico, under similar cir- 
cumstances of provincial revolt. Whose devotion is 
headlong enough to deny the shameless supineness, if 
not positive connivance and instigation, displayed by 
the administration over the most audacious and re- 
iterated breaches by our citizens of their obligations to 
that power? 

The West and Southwest, from the beginning of the 
Texas revolt to our recognition of its independence, 
exhibited, in almost every city and village, the aspect 
of a national war. Military array in no concealed 
form, but in all "Pomp and circumstance" of war, 
was the spectacle of every day. The agents and emis- 
saries of Texas, sensible of the gross impropriety and 
illegality of raising forces and fitting out military ex- 
peclitions against a nation with which the United 
States were at peace, sought, at first, to cover their 
operations under the pretext of embodying emigrants, 
whose voluntary expatriation the government was sup- 
posed to have had no right to prohibit. But, sir, em- 
boldened by impunity, that pretext, as troublesome, 
was soon laid aside, and a direct military recruiting 
for the defence of Texas openly substituted. Bodies 
of men, with arms, uniforms, and standards, and 
every quality of organized military force, breathing 
war and vengeance against a friendly power, were 
publicly displayed in the heart of our country! Are 
proofs required? The representatives on this floor 
from that section of the Union are my witnesses to 
attest the literal truth of what is here declared. 

And how, sir, was all this met by the administra- 
tion? Instructions were despatched to the law of- 
ficers of the United States, and perhaps others, an- 
nouncing the existence of a state of peace between 
the two nations, and enjoining the enforcement of 
the obligations on our part which that state as well as 



IN CONGRESS 123 

a treaty imposed. But these obligations were not en- 
forced. They were in no instance attempted to be 
enforced. Yet all this the administration knew, and 
knew from the beginning; and lolerated it, against, as 
I understand, the solemn and reiterated remonstrances 
of Mexico. 

Notwithstanding this, sir, charity, aided by a natural, 
and perhaps just, prepossession in favor of one's own 
country, might possibly have exculpated the adminis- 
tration of the infamy of unworthy motive, and as- 
cribed to inattention and remissness what, to 
Mexico, was equivalent in its effects to perfidy and 
dishonor. But, sir, the recent action of our govern- 
ment towards another power under like circumstances 
strikes away every remaining liope of reconciling its 
proceedings towards Mexico with any other supposi- 
tion than of perfidy and dishonor. What, I demand 
of the adherents of the administration here, has been 
its recent action towards Great Britain? A province 
of hers contiguous to us, as in the case of Mexico, is 
in a state of revolt. Instructions were issued, enjoin- 
ing on our law officers and others an enforcement of 
the neutral obligations of our people, as in the case 
of Mexico. But the administration does not stop at 
that point, as in the case of Mexico. A solemn procla- 
mation is published by the President, enjoining on our 
citizens the sacred observance of neutrality, and warn- 
ing them against the consequences of disobedience, in 
addition to what was done when Alexico was con- 
cerned. Officers of government are despatched to 
the scene of the disorders, with special instructions, 
unknown in the case of IVIexico. Not even content 
with an enforcement of the existing law. (not one 
clause of which was enforced, or in good faith at- 
tempted to be enforced, when Mexico was concerned,) 
the President, by a pressing message to Congress, en- 
treats an extension of the law to cases not now em- 
braced, in order to coerce our citizens into a more 
effectual respect for their obligations to Great 



124 RICHARD HICKMAN M^NEFEE 

Britain ; none of which occurred when ^Mexico was 
concerned. All which strikingly commendable zeal 
for maintaining our neutral duties, when Great Britain 
was concerned, transpired, it will be borne in mind, 
prior to the affair of the Caroline. 

Why this prompt and energetic action when Great 
Britain is concerned, so directly opposite to that when 
Mexico was concerned? Is not peace as sweet, and 
are not treaties as sacred in the one case as in the 
other? Is our measure of justice graduated by the 
power of the nations to whom we administer it? Do 
you deny to the weakness of an infant and distracted 
republic, what you grant, with a haste almost indecent, 
to the power of a great monarchy? Do you reverse 
the principles which govern brave and magnanimous 
nations? True bravery, sir, exalts itself into mag- 
nanimity in the intercourse of the powerful with the 
weak. In proportion to the weakness of Mexico, 
should have been the punctilious observance of every 
obligation we owed her. Did the administration avail 
itself of that very weakness to disregard all its obli- 
gations? On the other hand, brave nations are apt to 
poise themselves when in collision with their equals 
or superiors in power, and are prone, from fear of im- 
putation of undue concession to power, to a slow and 
stately port. Such is our posture towards Great 
Britain, the power of whose arms and the glory 'of 
whose name place her in the front rank of the nations 
of the earth. She is our peer. With her, when the 
nations exact justice, they must also perform it. 

In the late executive proceedings in regard to Great 
Britain, to which I have referred, I rejoice to recog- 
nize a disposition to enforce, in good faith, the 
national obligations. But how humiliating the con- 
trast between the treatment which the two nations re- 
spectively received ! What can save the national honor 
from the just suspicion, both at home and abroad, of 
the government having done, in regard to Great 
Britain, from fear, what it perfidiously omitted to do, 



IN CONGRESS 125 

from principle, in regard to Mexico? Yet, sir, as no 
nation ought to be allowed to persist in a course of 
injustice, I perceive, in looking to the ultimate results 
of this emergency the elements of remote advantage 
affecting the national character, more than compen- 
sating for any immediate mischief it may occasion. 
This last precedent of faith and justice will, I trust, 
obviate, to some extent, the evils of the former prece- 
dent of perfidy and injustice. There is nothing dis- 
honorable in doing justice to Great Britain — nothing 
humiliating. The dishonor and humiliation consist in 
having withheld it from Mexico. It is better for our 
youthful nation of free institutions, that an occasion 
has arisen thus early to reinstate its character by recti- 
fying its policy, than after persisting in error for a 
series of years, to confess and correct it, perhaps after 
fruitless and exhausting contests. 

Am I not justified then, in maintaining that, had the 
same promptness and energy been displayed by the 
government, in behalf of Mexico, whilst her province 
was in revolt, which it has displayed in behalf of Great 
Britain, now that a province of hers is in that state, 
the present difficulties would, in human probability, not 
have existed? Would not our citizens have been 
taught to respect the laws and their duty, instead of 
violating both, under the impunity which like con- 
duct towards Mexico had experienced? Were they 
not, by the previous passiveness of the government, in 
substance told that their sympathy (perhaps com- 
mendable in itself) might, without impropriety, be ex- 
ercised by fighting for others the battles of revolt? 
Did they not thus, in the first instance, thrust them- 
selves into this Canadian revolt, with scarcely a sus- 
picion of illegality? 

If, sir, the indignation of mankind could fasten ex- 
clusively on the administration, by whom this per- 
nicious policy has been practiced, I should experience 
the less sensibility; it might sink into quiet infamy, 
without a tear of mine, and hardly a regret over its 



126 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^EIE 

fall. But the national honor is implicated, and, un- 
fortunately, tarnished by the process which has in- 
famized the hands to which it was committed. 

My purpose, sir, in rising, was not to discuss nozv 
the merits of the subject to which the President's mes- 
sage immediately relates; but to offer my opinion of 
the principles and considerations by which the two 
powers ought to be, and I think, must be, governed in 
its adjustment; and to avail myself of the earliest 
occasion that presented to recall the administration 
itself, to the unfortunate and disastrous policy which 
marked our relations with Mexico during the Texas 
revolt; to the striking contrast it exhibited with our 
present policy towards Great Britain ; to the expecta- 
tion which our citizens on the frontier naturally enter- 
tained, that, as the laws and their obligations were 
the same, the course of the administration would be 
the same, by allowing similar impunity to similar vio- 
lations; to the precipitate change in its policy by the 
administration, and the attempt it now makes to cast 
the whole blame on citizens whom it has substantially 
betrayed into their present proceedings ; and to the re- 
sponsibility of the administration for whatever of out- 
rage has occurred on the Canada frontier, either by or 
against our people, arising from the fair operation of 
remote causes, to be found in the pernicious example 
it had previously set in regard to Mexico. 

Sir, neither nations nor individuals can be too early 
or profoundly penetrated with the sentiment, that in- 
flexible justice to others, under all conceivable cir- 
cumstances, is their true glory as well as interest. An 
immediate and temporary advantage may be gained, 
as experience has shown, by its violation ; but experi- 
ence has equally shown that, sooner or later, in some 
form or other, through the wise though often in- 
scrutable dispensations of a just Providence, retribu- 
tion will come, as it ought to. The application of that 
sentiment to the present conjuncture is simple and 
easy. For the injuries which are admitted by the 



IN CONGRESS 127 

President, to have been done Great Britain by our citi- 
zens, we trust, in proper time and form, to afford her 
justice. The attack on the Caroline, on the other liand. 
presents an occasion for the most scrupulous examina- 
tion by the government into the facts of tliat transac- 
tion, which, if found as now represented, exhibits an 
aggression upon us, which Great Britain, in proper time 
and form, must redress. And that this reciprocal jus- 
tice will be extended by both powers, who is authorized 
to entertain the slightest doubt? 

I must be allowed, then, to express my utter dissent 
from any attempt which may be here made, cither by 
the friends or the enemies of the administration, under 
a state of information admitted to be doubtful and im- 
perfect, on grounds of acknowledged passion, to force 
the two nations into false positions. Let us display 
calmness, moderation, and dignity, which are not only 
consistent with a firm and inflexible purpose to exact 
the most scrupulous justice, but afford the best proof 
of a determination to do so. Yet if. after all, against 
human expectations, the government of Great Britain 
shall, on proper application, refuse to disavow the late 
aggression of her subjects, and seasonably redress it, 
and force the necessity of an appeal to arms, our 
present power and past history leave on my mind no 
apprehensions of any result inconsistent with the na- 
tional glory, and the complete vindication of a jiHt 
cause. And when that deplorable contingency shall 
arise, it will be seen who are foremost to vindicate by 
arms the violated rights and offended honor of the 
country — those under whose auspices that honor has 
been stained, by withholding justice from an infant 
republic, because weak, or those who will tolerate no 
denial of justice by others, because they deny justice 
to none. 

I am sensible. Mr. v^peaker. that T may seem to 
evince an unreasonable solicitude on this subject. I 
persuade myself, however, that I entertain a sincere 
and profound devotion to the preservation of the 



128 RICHARD HICKMAN ME^N^I^DE^ 

national honor, upon principles which will ever ensure, 
at the hands of other nations, a scrnpulous respect for 
our national rights. If our internal poHcy is doomed 
to perpetual vacillation, amidst the clouds of party and 
faction, I trust that at least the policy which governs 
our intercourse with foreign nations may, in the sight 
of all mankind, tower, like the mountain peak, above 
the region of change or cloud, reposing on its founda- 
tion, not of passion, of rash and headlong excitement, 
with their floods and sand, or short-sighted temporary 
expediency, but the everlasting rock of undeviating 
justice. 

On January 11, 1838, Menefee spoke on the 
resolution submitted by Mr. Adams, which 
was to the efifect that Van Buren be requested 
to communicate to the House a copy and 
translation of the pamphlet in the Spanish 
language which was mentioned in the report of 
the Secretary of State to have been printed 
and circulated by the late minister from the 
Republic of Mexico, M. Govostiza, before his 
departure from this country, and the name of 
the diplomatic functionary from a foreign gov- 
ernment who communicated a copy of said 
pamphlet to the Secretary of State, was also 
requested by Adams. Benjamin C. Howard, 
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Rela- 
tions, moved to amend that part of it referring 
to the disclosure of the functionary who gave 
the Secretary of State a copy of M. Govostiza's 
letter. Air. Adams objected to this and spoke 
at length on his resolution. Mr. Howard re- 
fused to withdraw his amendment, and then 
Mr. Menefee spoke "On our relations with 
Mexico." 



IN CONGRESS 1 29 

THE MEXICAN SPEECH 

Mr, Speaker: 

I presume that tlie chairman of the Committee on 
Foreign Relations (Mr. Howard) has lionorecl me by 
his allusion to the conduct of the Government in the 
maintenance of the neutrality of our citizens toward 
Mexico in the progress of the Texas revolt. 

The frightful forms of libel and detraction, excited 
in his imagination by the pamphlet of Govostiza. seems 
to impart in his eye, a sort of libellous coloring to all 
that is here said which denies to the Government a 
title to canonization for its saintship throughout our 
Mexican relations. I should not complain of the 
gentleman for indulging in this manner an imagination 
morbidly, it strikes me, inllamcd, over matters of na- 
tional scandal. It was innocent enough, though per- 
haps not exactly amiable. But the gentleman at last 
ventures, rashly, to deny in cold blood the imputation 
against the Government, of either culpable remissness. 
or the least bad faith in the performance of our neutral 
and treaty obligations to Mexico. Rut, more rashly 
still, he ventures to proclaim, in all the solemn forms 
of political, and, from his position, semi-oflicial 
flourish, that gentlemen in the opposition who cast 
such grievous and unmerited reproach upon the Gov- 
ernment will, in due time, be required to specify and 
establish the grounds which justify such accusations. 
It is to me a source of profound satisfaction, that the 
Government had thus, in substance, invited public 
scrutiny into its transactions in that quarter. Xow, 
to me it presented no difficulty whatever to specify or 
establish more than enough to infamize, utterly, the 
course of the Administration. My difficulty lay in 
crediting that any intelligent citizen of the United 
States, much less the distinguished head of the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations, could be found willing to 
deny or doubt that the course of the Administration, 

9 



130 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^E^ 

both as to omission and commission, had been as we 
have described it. I even yet hoped that the honorable 
chairman was, in what he said, disposed to be face- 
tious. Why, sir, when I affirm that our citizens 
throughout the whole West and Southwest violated 
flagrantly their obligations of neutrality to Mexico, by 
affording public succor, in men and arms, to Texas, 
from the first stage of the revolt to the recognition of 
its independence, I have but to refer to the Representa- 
tives from that section of the Union. That military 
array, in no concealed form, but in all "the pomp and 
circumstance" of war, was the spectacle of every day ; 
that avowed military recruiting, by commissioned 
officers, for the defence of Texas ; that the character 
of emigrant, claiming the right of expatriation, first 
assumed, soon rose to that of soldier; that bodies of 
men with arms, uniforms, and standards, and every 
quality of organized military force, breathing war and 
vengeance against a friendly power, were publicly 
displayed in the heart of this country, in almost every 
city and village in its confines ; that all this was known 
to the Government from the beginning of the revolt; 
that it transpired under the immediate observation, 
and often under the express countenance of the law 
officers of the Government; that a pretence of boun- 
dary was most unreasonably set up by the Govern- 
ment ; that a military force was passed into ^lexican 
territory at a most critical period of the revolt; these, 
sir, and multitudes of others, are my specifications, and 
the West and Southwest here assembled are my 
proofs ! 

Let gentlemen beware : there is more in these Mexi- 
can relations than this intemperate justification of 
them seems to perceive. On a fit occasion they may 
be developed. 

But the chairman says there was no law which the 
Executive did not enforce; nothing undone which he 
could do. Does not the act of 1818, for the enforce- 
ment of neutral obligations, authorize the suppression 



IN CONGRESS 131 

of militar}^ expeditions, or preparations here, agfainst 
a power with whom we arc at peace? Look at it. 
Every provision ahnost has been violated, and not one 
clause enforced, or attempted, except in empty form. 
But suppose the law was not sufficiently comprehen- 
sive in its provisions? Why did not the Executive, 
charged with the conduct of- our foreign relations, 
communicate the fact to Congress, and ask their ex- 
tension? It is our duty to compel our citiccns to do 
justice to other nations. Other nations have a right 
to demand that w^e should, and we are nationally re- 
sponsible if we do not. Have you not lately done so 
in the case of the Canada revolt? Were not the 
aggressions of our citizens against Mexico more 
reiterated in number, and longer persisted in. than they 
have been against Great Britain? Why. then, dis- 
tinguish between the two powers? Is it because 
Mexico was zvcak that you declined this course 
towards her? Is it because Great Britain is poiccrful 
that you fly wnth this haste — almost indecent — to the 
frontier, find the laws not adequate, and present vour- 
self before Congress for increased authority? This is 
but justice to Great Britain. Yet why was not the 
same measure of justice extended to Mexico? How 
can you, under these circumstances, escape the sus- 
picion of the civilized world, that you have at once 
yielded to the power of a great monarchy what you 
denied to an infant and distracted republic? That the 
pozver of Great Britain has wrung from you a justice 
which, under your sense of principle and treaty, you 
would not allow to ^lexico? That your measure of 
justice is graduated by the pozi'cr of the nations to 
wdiom you administer it? There is no humiliation or 
dishonor in doing justice to Great Britain now : the 
humiliation and dishonor lie in naving withheld it from 
Mexico under like circumstances. 

Before this affair is closed, I hope to be able to do 
myself the honor to afford the honorable chairman 
specifications quite as exact as he may desire, "accom- 



132 RICHARD HICKMAN MKNEFEE 

panied with competent proofs." for his due considera- 
tion of which, I shall feel at liberty to allow him more 
than a week, if required — the time lately allowed a 
foreign Government, not so pozverful as Great Bntain, 
to determine on a multitude of intricate and complex 
subjects, involving the issues of peace and war. 

In the House on Tuesday, January 30, 1838, 
on motion of Menefee, 5,000 extra copies of the 
annual report of the Commissioner of Patents 
were ordered to be printed. 

On February 1 the Mississippi contested 
election case came up. The motion before 
the House was one made by Mr. Howard: 
"Resolved, That Sargent S. Prentiss and 
Thomas J. Word are not members of the 25th 
Congress." Messrs. Underwood of Kentucky, 
Cilley of Maine and others spoke for and 
against the resolution. Menefee replied to 
James M. Mason of Virginia. Mason was in 
favor of sending the election back. Menefee 
replied to him and insisted that Alessrs. Pren- 
tiss and Word were the duly elected members 
of the House from Mississippi. On the next 
day the same motion came up and he obtained 
the floor, but before proceeding with his re- 
marks moved an adjournment. Mr. Cushman 
called for the yeas and nays on the motion. 
The Speaker ordered them and the result was 
the motion was lost — ninety yeas and one him- 
dred and eighteen nays. ^Ienefee then pro- 
ceeded with his remarks in reply to Hugh S. 
Legare of South Carolina. He contended as he 
had done the day before, that Messrs. Prentiss 
and Word were constitutionally elected and 
entitled to their seats in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. Menefee's speech in favor of Pren- 



IN CONGRESS 133 

tiss undoubtedly did the Mississippian good, 
as he was permitted to take his seat three 
months later. John Bell, of Tennessee, fol- 
lowed Menefee, but he moved an adjournment 
before proceeding with his remarks and it was 
carried. The House was willing to be denied 
the privilege of hearing Bell, but to miss an 
opportunity to hear the Kentuckian was not to 
be thought of. 

On February 20 the House took up the bill 
on neutral relations. The bill was approved 
April 20, 1818, and was an act to amend an 
act, entitled "An act in addition to the act for 
the punishment of certain crimes against the 
United States and to repeal the act therein 
mentioned." Howard moved an additional 
section, that the crimes of sedition against the 
United States should be considered as misde- 
meanors with a fine of $3,000 and so many 
years in prison, the number of years to be 
agreed upon later. The merits of the bill were 
discussed by Millard Fillmore of New York, 
John Quincy Adams of JNlassachusetts, and 
Menefee of Kentucky. On motion of Adams 
the bill was ordered to be printed. 

SPEECH ON THE NEUTRALITY BILL^ 

I have regarded this bill with great interest from 
the moment of its first introduction into the House. 
From that moment it lias undergone the most frequent 
and fundamental alterations both in its form and sub- 
stance; and is now in a rapid course of transition from 
its present to some other shape. Judging from the 
past, no one can undertake to know, or even to liazard 
a rational conjecture, in what it is destined to ternii- 

^ Speech in National Intelligencer. 



134 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^EK 

nate. I have chosen to forbear to express my opinion 
upon the measure, until it shall have assumed, if it 
ever shall, some consistency — until it shall be brought 
to a stand. But the course which the debate seems 
now to take demands, I think, that some attempt 
should be made by some one, to infuse into our pro- 
ceedings on this question, if possible, a different spirit 
from that which, in my opinion, has thus far character- 
ized them. The general sentiments and opinions 
which I entertain on the subject of the maintenance of 
our neutral obligations to other Powers, it is the duty, 
and as I think, among the most important of the duties 
of Governments to enforce, to enforce by municipal 
laws, the observance by their citizens, of the obligation 
to which the nations to which they belong are subject. 
This duty, and the importance of its enforcement, are 
general and applicable to all nations ; but in an eminent 
and peculiar degree applicable to this nation. Our 
political institutions are, to a marked extent, peculiar, 
and possess, in theory, anything but the quality of 
sympathy with those of other nations. Indeed, our 
political institutions, although they have served in 
other countries in some instances to excite and sustain 
the spirit of freedom ; yet, from that very effect, have 
served to arouse the distrust and jealousy, if not to 
provoke the hate of nations whose political institu- 
tions are essentially alien and hostile to our own. We 
have, therefore, all to lose, and nothing whatever to 
gain, by a departure, even in the slightest particular, 
from steady, inflexible, and stern adherence to the 
principle of noti-mtei'vention in the internal affairs of 
other nations. To comprehend justly the principles 
which should lie at the foundation of any legislation of 
ours on this subject, it should be borne in mind that 
the duties and obligations of the citizoi, in all these 
respects, are precisely those of the nation of which he 
is a member, and of which he forms a part. Nations, 
in their relation to each other, are unities ; and their 
character, when once ascertained — as pacific or bellig- 



IN CONGRESS 135 

erent — is imparted to and governs that of the citizen. 
In the language of Mr. Jefferson, "if one citizen has 
a right to go to war, of his own authority, every citi- 
zen has the same. If every citizen has that right, then 
the nation (which is composed of all its citizens) has 
a right to go to war by the authority of its individual 
citizens. But this is not true, eitlier on the general 
principles of society, or by our Constitution, which 
gives that power to Congress alone." "Indeed, noth- 
ing could be more obviously absurd than to say that 
all the citizens may be at war and yet the nation at 
peace." With my opinions then on the duties of 
nations and the corresponding duties of the citizen, I 
am, of course, prepared to enforce, by municipal law, 
whatever can be fairly demonstrated to be our duty 
under the established law of nations. 

But, sir, whilst nations have duties to perform, they 
have also rights to maintain, and should not be less 
ready to fulfill the one than prompt to vindicate the 
other. And even in the discharge, by nations, of 
duties of this sort, they should not be unmindful of the 
circumstances which surround them while they thus 
act. Even justice, sir, should, when nations admin- 
ister it, be reasonably administered. A just redress of 
acknowledged wrongs can not be granted, consistently 
with national honor, if demanded under a menace. 
Many other instances might and often do exist, where 
nations, as w^ell as individuals, are required to judge of 
the propriety of the mode, manner, and time of an act, 
as well as of the substance of the act. 

Now it is to this point that I desire to direct the 
attention of the House. I wish that the nation should 
regard her obligations, the act of fulfilling them as 
others have done. But I am not content to circum- 
scribe my view to those considerations only : I insist 
that the circumstances of this proposed legislation shall 
also be regarded. I entertain a strong desire and 
fixed purpose that this nation shall, so far as any act 
of mine is concerned, bear itself erect, perfectly erect. 



136 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

towards all nations, at all times, and towards Great 
Britain in particular at the present time. Now, sir, it 
can scarcely be pretended that the bill, as introduced 
originally, was meant for any other purpose than the 
repression of the disorders now existing on the Cana- 
dian frontier. This bill originated in the recommenda- 
tion in the President's message early in January, hav- 
ing immediate reference, by name, to these disorders. 
It1s an affair between this nation and Great Britain, to 
which this legislation is to relate. The measure does 
not propose, as it should, a general law declaratory of, 
and designed to enforce our obligations to all nations: 
it is confined to conterminous nations — adjacent na- 
tions. In other words, viewing the bill geographic- 
ally, (for its operation is geographical) it is not con- 
ceivable that its provisions can enure to any other 
nation, on any reasonable contingency, than to Great 
Britain. It is, in its original form, substantially a bill 
for the benefit of Great Britain, and would not be 
unaptly entitled : "A bill for the more effectual mainte- 
nance of the roval authority in the British provinces in 
North America." I repeat that I stand prepared to 
enforce, to the utmost verge, every duty we owe to 
other nations, and all nations alike. But this measure, 
as it proceeds from the hands of the Executive (for it 
came from the Senate through a committee which must 
be presumed to have been fully acquainted with his 
opinions of a measure like this, arising from his special 
recommendation), not only advanced to the line of our 
duty, but, by the admission of many of the friends of 
the Executive in this House not likely to make incon- 
siderate admissions, greatly transcended that duty. It 
not only performs duty, but surrenders rights. It is 
admitted that the universally acknowledged right to 
trade in contraband is surrendered to Great Britain by 
this bill — a commercial right of high consideration, 
and not to be renounced without equivalent. It is 
further admitted and contended by a strenuous ad- 
herent of the Administration, that the bill not only 



IN CONGRESS 137 

surrenders this commercial right, but involves a gross 
and most alarming- violation of more provisions than 
one of the Constitution, meant to secure the citizens 
from unreasonable seizure and searches, their right to 
bear arms, the protection of property, and the right of 
trial by jury. 

Now, sir, without inquiring into the provisions of 
the bill in detail, whether justly exposed to the stric- 
tures and even denunciations to tlicir lull extent with 
which the friends of the Administration themselves 
have visited it, I proceed to state what 1 rose exclu- 
sively to state, the reasons why, in my opinion, the 
House should not allow itself, in the present conjunc- 
ture of affairs, to be influenced by the appeals which 
the friends of the Administration are incessantly ring- 
ing in its ears, for speedy, immediate, instant action on 
this subject, under the terrors of a rupture with Great 
Britain. Sir, I feel no dismay. I mean to do justice 
to Great Britain, but I shall not forget the rights of 
my own nation, or of its citizens, or my duty to the 
Constitution, or the dignity of this Republic. I shall 
endeavor to rise to the summit, and to survey, com- 
posed and self-possessed, the whole field which this 
emergency opens. I will bear in mind that our rela- 
tions with Mexico are in a highly disturbed state ; and 
I will remember that we have unadjusted difficulties, if 
not unredressed wrongs, with Great Britain, both of 
ancient and recent origin. I will not fail to remem- 
ber, for history will not, how the Administration con- 
ducted itself towards the Republic which I have men- 
tioned, on an occasion nearly resembling the present. 

I shall not now enter upon the merits of the ques- 
tion, whether, in the maintenance of the national obli- 
gations towards Mexico, the Administration vindi- 
cated or sullied the honor of die nation. It is referred 
to for the sole purpose of showing, that if it shall 
appear that any striking contrast shall be found 
between our action then, in regard to that Rcpubhc. 
and what is now proposed in regard to Great Britain, 



138 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEf'KE 

the world and posterity will not fail to observe it, and 
demand the causes of the discrimination. It is matter 
of history, that irom the foundation of our present 
Government, the Executive has always felt it incum- 
bent to promulgate, in solemn form, his proclamation, 
announcing to the citizens their duty, whenever it was 
probable that, from temporary excitement or other- 
wise, they were in danger of violating it. The prac- 
tice began with General \\''ashington in his celebrated 
proclamation of neutrality with respect to France, on 
the 22nd of April, 1793. It was followed by another 
for the suppression of the Pennsylvania insurrection 
on the 7th of August, 1794; by that of Mr. Jefferson 
in 1806, in relation to the apprehended movements of 
Burr on the Southwest ; by that of Mr. Monroe, on the 
1st of September, 181 5. enjoining the most sacred 
observance of neutrality in the contest between Spain 
and her South American dependencies ; by that of 
President Jackson, on the loth of December, 1832, 
declaring to the people of South Carolina his opinion 
of the law, and requiring them to return to their alle- 
giance; and finally, sir, by that of Mr. Van Buren, of 
the 5th of January, 1838, in relation to the very sub- 
ject which now engages our consideration. Through- 
out the whole career of the American Executives from 
the 22nd of April, 1793, to the 5th of January, 1838, 
the practice has been uniform, and throughout that 
whole unbroken, except in one instance. A province 
of the Republic of Mexico was in revolt — rightfully or 
wrongfully ; it was inhabited by immigrants from the 
United States, who took with them from thence the 
love of liberty, the national pride, admiration of insti- 
tutions, common interest in history — all that was 
worth loving or admiring. They were, for all the pur- 
poses of sympathy or feeling, "bone of our bone and 
liesh of our flesh" ; and when they threw off what they 
at least termed the chains of the oppressor, was any- 
thing less to have been expected of the Executive than 
that a more intense interest should have been felt by 



IN CONGRKSS 139 

our people in their struggle, and a keener desire should 
prevail to engage in it, than had ever been before 
experienced in the United States? In point of fact, 
all this interest and all this anxiety did exist; not in 
one section only but throughout the whole confines of 
the Republic. Yet in the midst of all this, with the 
ancient and modern and entire practice of his prede- 
cessors before him, the Executive folds his arms in 
composure, and views unmoved the rising, raging and 
spending of this storm upon the bosom of a contigu- 
ous republic. I do not now complain of this : I barely 
remind you of it. Upon the first appearance of a 
cloud in an opposite quarter, the ancient and salutory 
practice of the Executive is resumed, and a proclama- 
tion warns us to abstain from interference in the dis- 
putes of Great Britain and her subjects, complaining 
though they were of the yoke of the foreign oppressor, 
as did Texas, and appealing to freemen for sympathy 
in a struggle for freedom. In the case of Mexico, the 
Executive refused to do what had never been refused 
to any other nation : he refused because he was ex- 
pressly requested by the District Attorney of Ken- 
tucky, in 1836, to issue a proclamation. You now 
propose to do for Great Britain what you have never 
done for any other nation. You were solemnly 
appealed to by the District Attorney in New York in 
November, 1835, for an amendment of the existing 
laws, to prevent outrages alleged to be in course of 
preparation against Mexico, but which those laws 
could not reach. This application, though made just 
before the convening of Congress, was disregarded by 
the Executive, and no amendment recommended. 

Now you clamorously demand an amendment of the 
laws, without delay, at once, for the benefit of Great 
Britain under the same circumstances ; an amendment, 
too, confessedly going much farther than any nation 
has a right to require; and the patriotism almost ques- 
tioned of those who are for deliberating calmly, neither 
courting, nor dreading, nor injuring Great Britain. 



140 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

but administering to her that justice, and not the 
smallest particle beyond what we should administer to 
the most insignificant Power. Great Britain has no 
right to complain if we take our own good time for 
fulfilling our duties. All she has a right to require is 
good faith. Under the present emergency, she may 
expect that whatever is meant to be done should be 
done with reasonable dispatch. She has no right to 
expect precipitancy on our part, even in a matter of 
justice, especially upon so grave a question as the 
legislative expression of our duty to other powers, 
under the international law, with a municipal enforce- 
ment of it involving high penalties. But if notwith- 
standing this, Great Britain shall complain, why, sir, 
I shall listen to her complaints as serenely as I now do 
to the appeals made for precipitate legislation : I shall 
believe them ill-founded, and shall disregard them. 

But, it is contended that, under the existing laws, the 
Executive can not authorize the seizure of vessels, etc. 
designed to provide the Canadian rebels with arms and 
munitions of war. It is quite probable he has not. 
But the Secretary of the Treasury, by his order of 
January last, to the revenue officers on that frontier, 
has expressly coinnianded such seimire, and the Exec- 
utive thus, at this instant, in the full fruition and 
exercise of the very power which it was the chief 
object of the original bill to confer — he is exercising it 
not under the laws but over them. He is not execu- 
ting the law, but anticipating your bill : he has enacted 
law. The Executive could not execute a law which 
he was bound and sworn to execute, on another occa- 
sion : he can transcend all law on this. The parties 
concerned are different. 

I am not opposed to a proper bill on this subject. I 
doubt, however, wdiether the existing law is not en- 
tirely efficacious if duly administered; but if it is not, 
agree upon what our obligations to other Powers are, 
under our system of non-intervention, and I will, by 
legislation, advance to their utmost limits. To that 



IN CONGRESS 141 

point I will go for all nations — for Mexico. Beyond 
it I will not go for any nation — not for Great Britain. 

I quote the following as an interesting ac- 
count of a celebrated duel: 

On the 24th day of February, 1838, occurred a duel 
between two members of Congress/ which, owing to 
the prominence of the parties engaged and the sad 
termination of the affair, creaied more excitement, 
perhaps, than has ever been aroused in consequence of 
a similar catastrophe, in this country, with the single 
exception of the notable meeting between Burr and 
Hamilton. iMatthew L. Davis, a newspaper corres- 
pondent at Washington, wrote a letter to the Nezv 
York Courier and Enquirer, in which he charged that 
it was in his power to convict a member of the House 
of Representatives, whose name he did not give, of 
having accepted a bribe. A motion by Wise to in- 
vestigate the charge gave rise to a discussion on the 
floor of the House, in the course of which Hon. Jona- 
than Cilley, a prominent member of the Democratic 
side and representative from Maine, urged that it was 
ill-advised for the House to go into an investigation 
of the matter on a mere ncAvspaper assertion, and 
alluded in severe terms to James Watson ^^'ebb, the 
editor of the paper. The result was a communication 
from Mr. Webb to Cilley, which he placed in the hands 
of the Hon. William J. Graves, a member of the House 
from Kentucky. Mr. Cilley declined to receive 
Webb's note on the ground that he would not be held 
responsible for the words spoken in his representative 
capacity, as a member of Congress, but at the same 
time stated that he meant no disrespect to Mr. Graves 
and did not decline on account of any personal objec- 
tion to Mr. Webb as a gentleman. Graves subse- 
quently called upon Wise to consult him in the matter, 
and was informed by the latter, in response to a ques- 

' Life of H. A. Wise, by B. H. Wise. 



142 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

tioii from Graves, that he considered Cilley's answer 
entirely satisfactory. Graves, however, determined 
that it was proper to secure a written answer from 
Cilley, and accordingly addressed him a note calling 
upon him to put in writing what he had previously 
stated in the interviews between them. Cilley replied 
by saying that he declined to receive Webb's note 
because he did not choose to be drawn into any con- 
troversy with him, and went on to state that he had 
neither affirmed nor denied anything in regard to his 
character, and that he intended by the refusal no disre- 
spect to him, Mr. Graves. Graves was not satisfied 
with his answer, and addressed a second note to Cilley 
requesting a categorical answer as to whether he had 
declined to receive Webb's note on the ground of any 
personal exception to him as a gentleman or man of 
honor. To this Cilley replied by denying Graves's 
right to propound the question contained in his note. 
Thereupon Graves, who considered that Mr. Cilley had 
refused in writing a satisfactory answer which he had 
made verbally, and furthermore that he had impeached 
the honor of Mr. W^ebb, for whom as a gentleman 
Mr. Graves had by bearing his note undertaken to 
vouch, sent a challenge to Cilley which the latter 
accepted. Graves had never been intimate with Wise, 
and when he first called upon Wise to bear the chal- 
lenge. Wise declined, but yielded when Graves re- 
minded him that on a certain occasion he (Graves) had 
defended him when he was attacked on the floor of the 
House during his absence. The preliminary note of in- 
quiry, which was so framed that it forced a duel, and 
the challenge itself, were drafted by Henry Clay, an in- 
timate friend of Graves, though he did not accompany 
him to the field. Wise, with the assistance of John J. 
Crittenden. Senator, and Richard H. ]\Ienefee, M. C. 
from Kentucky, arranged the preliminaries, as seconds 
to Graves, with George W. Jones. M. C. from Wis- 
consin, for Cilley, associated with Messrs. Bynum of 
North Carolina and Duncan of Illinois. Rifles were 



IN CONGRESS 143 

named as the weapons with which the ckiel was to be 
fought, at a distance of eighty yards, to which Wise 
objected, as unusual and necessarily fatal ; but Mr. 
Clay, upon being consulted, remarked, "He (Graves) 
is a Kentuckian and can never back from a ritle." 
Various pretexts were resorted to by Wise, designed 
to delay and prevent the meeting which he considered 
unnecessary, as the affair turned upon a mere punctilio, 
and the real quarrel, if any, was between Cilley and 
Webb. These, however, proved futile, and on the 
afternoon of February 24, the parties met in a field on 
the Benning's road, near Washington, about a quarter 
of a mile north of where it intersects with the Marl- 
boro turnpike. A coin was tossed up for the choice 
of positions, which Wise won and Jones gave the word. 
Three shots were fired on each side, and at the third 
exchange Cilley fell mortally wounded, Graves's bullet 
having passed through the groin and severed the 
femoral artery. 

Wise in a letter concerning the duel, written to 
Jones, Cilley's second, correcting some newspaper 
accounts, gives the following description of what 
occurred on the field, which, though written years 
afterward, is remarkably accurate as to details and 
confirmed by contemporary reports as well as by Gen- 
eral Jones, to the author in person. "All fairness and 
every courtesy were observed. The preliminaries 
were settled without a jar ; you won the word, and the 
choice of position fell to me. You fronted me half 
way the line of fire, held yourself in position to be 
equally heard, and delivered the word aloud, distinctly 
and fairly, as prescribed. My eyes were turned upon 
Mr. Cilley to see that he observed the terms, and he 
fired first, nearly about the count 'one.' Graves last, 
about the word 'two.' Mr. Cilley's ball struck the 
ground between your position and mine, forty steps 
from his stand. Graves missed him the first shot. 
Mr. Cilley was evidently disturbed by losing his shot 
and firing too quickly. You ran to him, and some- 



144 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^EE 

thing passed which showed Mr. Cilley was excited, 
and I knew would make no concession without another 
fire. Then in turn Mr. Graves lost his shot at the 
second exchange. He had a large coarse hand, no 
sense of touch fine enough for a hair-trigger, and no 
experience with firearms. My orders to him there- 
fore, were to hold his rifle cocked, hair-trigger set, 
according to terms, horizontal; at the word 'fire' to 
push his gun forward, so as to bring the breech firmly 
to his shoulder, and then level the sight on the vertical, 
covering his antagonist's person, and to fire when he 
raised as high as the hip of his antagonist; and to 
insure deliberation and to prevent losing his shot, to 
keep his finger out of the spanner until the instant of 
pulling his trigger. This he did the first time, and he 
fired plenty quick enough. But before the second shot, 
whilst I was forty yards off at my position, Mr. Mene- 
fee (he and Crittenden stood on either side of Graves, 
as Duncan and Bynum did on either side of Cilley), 
when he put the rifle in Graves's hands, told him he 
fired too slow the first time, and upon Graves's telling 
him of my orders, he, Menefee, objected to them 
prevailed on him to put his finger in the spanner. 
The consequences were as I had expected. At the 
word 'fire,' and as he pushed his gun forward, and 
raised the breech to his shoulder, his gun was dis- 
charged not three feet from his toes. With his gun 
fixed on Cilley, seeing no smoke and feeling no recoil, 
he was unconscious that his gun was fired, and raised 
and stood pulling at his trigger, when he received 
Cilley's fire again about the count 'two.' He still 
stood pulling at his trigger until the count was out. 
Thinking he was writhing from a wound, I ran to him 
and he dropped the breech of his rifle to the ground, 
blew in the muzzle, and exclaimed, 'Why, this gun is 
discharged!' He and Menefee at once explained the 
cause. But he was very much mystified and nothing 
could have prevented him from demanding another 
exchange of shots. When you came up, as you did 



IN CONGRKSS 145 

every time to inquire whether Graves was satisfied, you 
could receive but one answer, not witiiout some (Us- 
claimer; and Graves's awkwardness caused me to give 
you the notice I did, so much denounced, that after 
the third fire I would demand a shortening of the 
distance. By the time of the third exchange of shots, 
both were well trained, were deliberate, and Graves 
strictly obeyed my orders. At the count 'two,' a mo- 
ment before. Mr. Cilley fired, and about an instant 
after 'two' Graves fired, and made the vertical line 
shot just above the hip. Thus ended the fight. Both 
of Cilley's last two shots were very fine; they passed 
through the fence logs just behind Graves, one at the 
elevation of the breast, the other a space below, per- 
pendicular to the upper, and at the elevation of the hip. 
If his coat had been unbuttoned, both balls would have 
perforated its lapels. His life was saved by his posi- 
tion. The wind blew steadily fresh oblif|uely against 
Mr. Cilley's ball. I was sure the aim would be at the 
centre of Graves's body, and allowing about from 
four to six inches for the deflection to the left of Cilley 
and right of Graves, I selected the position I did, 
though disadvantageous in other respects." 

It is well-nigh impossible to conceive at this day the 
storm of indignation that broke out, at news of the 
duel and its fatal result. Cilley was not only a promi- 
nent, but a popular man in his section, and the further 
fact that the duel was fought over what was reirarded 
as a mere punctilio, rather than a real cause of diflfer- 
ence between the two combatants, tended greatly to 
aggravate the popular odium which was visited upon 
the participants. Although Henry Clay had been 
Graves's chief adviser, and IMessrs. Crittenden and 
Menefee had acted as seconds on the field with Wise, 
as Messrs. Bynum and Duncan had with Jones as Cil- 
ley's seconds, yet Wise and Jones, who had had the 
arrangement of the details, were looked upon as the 
main actors in that capacity; and the former espe- 
10 



146 RICHARD HICKMAN M^NEl^EE 

cially, as the bearer of the challenge, which, however, 
he had neither written nor approved, was fiercely 
assailed in the press at the time as the instigator of 
the duel. Colonel Webb, the editor of the Courier and 
Enquirer, also coming in for a full share of censure, as 
being the proper party to have fought Cilley, assuming 
there was ground for a difficulty. 

An investigation was ordered by the House of 
Representatives upon the announcement of the duel, 
two days after its occurrence, to inquire into the cir- 
cumstances of Mr. Cilley's death, and as to whether 
there had been any breach of the privileges of the 
House. A committee of seven members was 
appointed, who, after an investigation, declared in 
their report : "It is a breach of the highest constitu- 
tional privilege of the House, and of the most sacred 
rights of the people in the person of their representa- 
tive, to demand in a hostile manner an explanation of 
words in debate." They also submitted resolutions 
for the expulsion of Graves, and censure of Wise and 
Jones, but after a long debate the whole subject was 
laid on the table. Popular feeling, however, found 
vent in the enactment by Congress of the Anti-duelling 
Act not long after. 

Cordial political relations existed at the time 
between Clay and Wise, and the friends of the former 
were very anxious lest his part in the affair should be 
disclosed in the public prints, and mar his chances for 
the presidency. Several years afterward Wise wrote : 
"Mr. Clay's friends particularly were very anxious, 
for obvious reasons, not to involve his name in the 
affair. Thus, many confidential facts remained 
unknown on both sides. Mr. Clay himself, it is true, 
whilst all his friends were trembling lest the part he 
took in it should be disclosed, boldly came to me and 
said: 'Sir, it is a nine days' bubble! If they want to 
know what I did in the matter, tell them to call me 
before them, and I will tell them!' This excited my 
admiration at the time, and was effectual to prevent 



IN CONGRKSS 147 

me from unnecessarily bringing his name before the 
committee." 

For several years succeeding the duel. Wise con- 
tinued to bear the opprobrium visited upon ln"in, — until 
early in 1842, during the debate in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, upon the resolution to censure John Ouincy 
Adams, which arose from the presentation by the latter 
of the Haverhill petition. Adams attacked Wise with 
great bitterness in regard to his connection with the 
duel, and declared that he had come into that hall "with 
his hands dripping with human gore, and a blotch of 
human blood upon his face," which provoked the 
latter into replying that "the charge was as base and 
black a lie as the traitor was base and black who 
uttered it." Wise, whose relations with Clay were no 
longer friendly, published the circumstances of the 
duel in the Madisonian and Intelligencer, and called on 
Clay to declare the part which he had taken in it. This 
the^ latter admitted, in a letter over his signature, of 
which full use was made by the New England Demo- 
cratic press in the ensuing presidential campaign, and 
it was instrumental in defeating him for that office. 

On March 2 the Neutrality Bill was again 
brought before the House and Menefee spoke 
at some length in opposition to it, on the 
ground of its unconstitutionality. He then de- 
bated with Legare of South Carolina and Un- 
derwood of Kentucky on the merits of the bill. 

Monday, March 5, was "resolution day"; 
the Speaker proceeded to call the States, begin- 
ning with Wisconsin Territory. In the call of 
States Kentucky was called after Tennessee. 
Graves, Southgate, Hawes, Williams, Cham- 
bers, Harlan, White, Calhoun and Underwood 
introduced resolutions dealing wholly with 
Kentucky or Kentuckians. IMenefee's resolu- 
tion dealt with a national question, the burn- 



148 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEK 

ing of the Caroline: "Resolved, That the Presi- 
dent of the United States be and is hereby re- 
quested to communicate to the House if not in- 
compatible with the pubHc interest, such infor- 
mation as he may possess relative to the seiz- 
ure of the steamboat Caroline acquired since 
the date of his last message on that subject; 
the measures which the government have 
adopted to obtain from the government of 
Great Britain an explanation of the seizure; 
and the ground which the diplomatic repre- 
sentatives of Great Britain here and the provin- 
cial authorities of upper Canada, have assumed 
in relation thereto." 

On March 8 the Committee on Patents re- 
ported several bills to authorize the Commis- 
sioner of the Patent Ofiice to issue certain 
patents. And on March 10 and 13 the com- 
mittee reported several other bills authorizing 
the Commissioner of Patents to grant certain 
individual patents. 

Some time in the latter part of March Presi- 
dent Van Buren sent his message to Congress 
on the state of the country, and Menefee de- 
livered the following speech upon it: 

Mr. Speaker : 

No one could have been shocked more than myself 
by the communication to this House, by the President 
of the United States of the offensive documents to 
which the resolution of the gentleman from New York 
(Mr. Hoffman) related. Such a procedure on the 
part of the Executive undoubtedly demands the instant 
notice of the House of Representatives ; and in the 
absence of an instant explanation, their marked repro- 
bation. That notice was attracted and explanation 
demanded by the resolution ; but I must suppose all 



IN CONGRESS 149 

reprobation to have been averted by the Message whicli 
the House has this morning received from the Presi- 
dent, in which he states that the communication to the 
House of the exceptionable documents was not inten- 
tional. For myself I am fully satisfied with this expla- 
nation; and do not, therefore, require the supplica- 
tory appeals on the part of the friends of the President 
for an extension to him of the charity of the House. 
I extend to him what is more substantial than 
charity — justice; and justice simply, in my opinion, is 
all that is requisite to his defence under such circum- 
stances. This, sir, is but an instance of inattention to 
duty, or its violation in one of the Executive Depart- 
ments, by an insubordinate officer, whose powers and 
duties are assigned by law — the President neither 
knowing nor participating. The just ground of com- 
plaint against the President, in such a case, is the con- 
tinuance in office of the subordinate after the delin- 
quency is known, rather than the original delinquency 
itself. 

It must be acknowledged, however, that the Presi- 
dent of the United States, judged in this instance by 
his own principles of presidential responsibility, has 
no right to demand, nor perhaps even a decent pretext 
for asking, the exoneration which has been thus 
promptly conceded ; and I can not allow to pass, un- 
improved, an occasion so appropriate for inviting the 
attention of the House to what those principles are — 
a task of no difficulty, as it consists merely in a refer- 
ence to a document of no great antiquity, in which 
they are embodied in the most authentic form. On 
the 17th of April, 1834. sir, the then President of the 
United States, whose principles and opinions are, by 
adoption, those of the present incumbent, promulgated 
to the nation a paper among the most celebrated in its 
history: I mean his "solemn protest," of that date, 
addressed to the Senate of the United States. In that 
remarkable state paper, the origm and history of which 



150 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

it is now useless to review, are expressed fully the prin- 
ciples of that period, as entertained by that party, in 
regard to Executive responsibility for the conduct of 
subordinate officers. Nor was that paper a mere 
abstract declaration of principles. It was. on the con- 
trary, a practical display of principles, in upholding a 
high executive act : the highest indeed, and the most 
high-handed executive act that disfigures our history. 
What are those principles? That the whole "Execu- 
tive power is vested in the President" ; that "he is 
responsible for its exercise" ; that all subordinate offi- 
cers are but agents and instruments to "aid him in the 
performance of his duties" ; that the power of removal 
and appointment "is an original Executive power" ; 
and that, for the conduct of all Executive officers, the 
"President is responsible" — all in turn being "respon- 
sible to him." 

Now, sir, in a land of laws under a limited Constitu- 
tion, these must be admitted to be extraordinary doc- 
trines, which it is not my present purpose to expose, 
but merely, by referring to them, to show what they 
are. 

Executive unity was claimed, with all the qualities 
of individuality; and all the thousands of Executive 
officers in the civil, military, and naval service, in peace 
and in war, at home and abroad, on sea and land, in 
all their ramifications of Government, were but bones 
and sinews, and muscles and nerves, of that vast con- 
stitutional unit of which they were parts — the Presi- 
dent the whole. They were the eyes by which he saw, 
the ears by which he heard, the nerves by which he 
felt, and the bones, sinews, and muscles by which he 
moved forward and, sir, by which he struck. The 
President as the sensorium, directing all, moving all, 
responsible for all. 

This was the doctrine maintained when an attempt 
was made to hold a high Executive officer (the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury) responsible to the law, in a most 



IN CONGRESS 151 

critical period of our public affairs. The President 
interposed himself as the whole, undivided, indivisible 
Executive, responsible for the conduct of all his aids in 
the performance of his duties. He demanded to be 
held responsible for their delinquencies. In the career 
v^hich that remarkable man was then running, he 
sought, with avidity, the responsibility of atoning for 
all the sins, if but allowed the pleasure of wielding all 
the power of the whole Executive Department. 

Yet now the President who represents these princi- 
ples, and is committed to the execution of them, claims 
of the House exoneration from responsibility for an 
acknowledged delinquency of the head of an Executive 
Department; and of the same Department. 

It is well, I think, sir, to revert occasionally to the 
doctrines of yesterday; it inspires circumspection in 
the actors of to-morrow. In the present instance, 
there seems to be a striking propriety in drawing, 
though rapidly, across the vision of the President a 
picture of the past. It may serve to convince him that 
it is given to but a few to demolish a free Constitution 
and erect out of its strewn fragments an Executive 
stronghold so stupendous as that erected, in practice, 
by his predecessor. 

Sir, without expressing any opinion respecting the 
Secretary of the Treasury or others, I wholly excul- 
pate the President, and do not, in a case like this, 
choose to withhold a public expression of the gratifi- 
cation which his late message has afforded. I recog- 
nize in that act, with profound satisfaction, the prompt 
performance of what was due, in my opinion, to the 
private citizen, to the House of Representatives, and to 
a Chief Magistrate of the United States. 

On April 9 Representative Homer intro- 
duced the following resolution (in substance), 
that the business of the country was in a dam- 



152 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

aged condition, and considering that a part of 
the banks of the country have expressed a de- 
sire to resume specie payments, it is the duty 
of the Government to aid such banks in regain- 
ing the public confidence. This resolution pro- 
duced great excitement in the House. 

On April 16, this resolution being under dis- 
cussion, Alenefee rose and said that he merely 
wanted to make one single remark. It was 
simply this — at this point a gentleman rose and 
objected. Alenefee then moved a suspension of 
the rule to enable him to make his remark. 
Luther C. Peck, of New York, called for the 
yeas and nays. They were ordered and re- 
sulted, yeas 85, nays 71. This was not the re- 
quired two-thirds, but the motion was decided 
in the negative. 

On April 20, Menefee, on leave, submitted 
two resolutions, which were agreed to. The 
first one was that the Committee on Revolu- 
tionary Pensions be instructed to inquire into 
the expediency of granting a pension to an old 
Revolutionary captain of Fleming County, 
Kentucky. The second one w^as that the Com- 
mittee on the Post Office and Post Roads be 
instructed to inquire into the expediency of 
establishing a post route from Poplar Flat in 
Lewis County to Mount Carmel in Fleming 
County, Kentucky. Thus was Menefee look- 
ing out for the interests of Kentuckians and 
Kentucky, 

On April 23, 28 and 30, Alenefee made his 
speech on the Graves-Cilley duel reports. He 
made it in three parts and it was the longest 
speech that he ever delivered. 



in congress 153 

menefee's speech on the anti-dueeing eaw' 

Mr. Speaker: 

I am certainly, as every member must be, apprized of 
the general condition of the finances, and of the par- 
ticular exigencies of the Treasury at this time; but I 
am not prepared for the annunciation just made by the 
Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. 

He tells us that there is no time for trial ; to enter 
upon which would be wholly incompatible with a 
proper despatch of the public business. No time for 
trial! Sir, when did the gentleman make that dis- 
covery ? Was not the state of the public business and 
of the Treasury fully known, all along, to the gentle- 
man who originated this inquiry, and by whom it has 
been pressed, the chairman himself amongst them? 
No one will doubt it. All, therefore, who contributed 
to set this inquiry on foot intended, I am justified in 
pronouncing, that it should thus conflict with the dis- 
charge by this House of other public duties ; for they 
foresaw — must have foreseen — from the first, the 
direction which it was eventually to take; which was 
formal trials, separately, before the House — with 
accusers confronting the accused, and witnesses face 
to face with parties — of each member against whom 
any accusation should be made or punishment aimed. 
Indeed, raising a committee, of itself, implied such 
final action; for the office of a committee is but pre- 
liminary, preparatory to the action of the House, and 
its acts are nugatory except as conducting to such 
ulterior action. All looked to the Committee as the 
means, the end of which was the action of the House. 
This course of proceeding, nevertheless, presented, 
at that time, no obstacle. 

Has anything intervened since this inquiry was thus 
instituted, disclosing the impracticability of its further 
prosecution ? Are we to understand, from the position 

^ Speech in Congressional Globe 



154 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

which the gentleman holds, that in what he has just 
uttered are presented the wishes of the Administration 
and the intention of its friends here, respecting this 
subject, namely to urge it to the point of a report, in- 
volving, to the deepest degree, the characters of dis- 
tinguished gentlemen of the opposition, members of 
the House, and suspending over them resolutions of 
censure and expulsion, and then to arrest the proceed- 
ings altogether ? In other words, to raise a committee, 
and employ it for two months in preparing accusations 
and elaborating arguments against gentlemen, with a 
view to promulgation, and now actually promulgated 
all over the Republic ; and then, by instantly arresting 
the proceedings, to deprive the accused of the oppor- 
tunity of vindication in the regular course of investiga- 
tion and trial ! 

No time! Sir, they have found time, the amplest 
time, to accuse, to criminate; have they not time to 
hear and try? They can, without the slightest preju- 
dice to the public interest, inculpate ; have they no time 
to hear evidence in defence and exculpation ? Is there 
time for calumny ; none for truth ? 

I admit, sir, that a disposition of these proceedings 
in the only justifiable mode — after full opportunity of 
defence — will conflict with the just demands of the 
public interest. Their prosecution up to this point has 
already produced such conflict. But this does not at 
all prove that they should be arrested now, having al- 
ready gone so far ; but it may prove that they should 
never have been instituted. As a question of privilege, 
this excludes the consideration of all other business, 
no matter how urgent. The Treasuiy, now scarcely 
sustaining itself, may soon, for want of supplies, close 
against the public creditors, to the infinite prejudice of 
the public credit. Other alarming embarrassments 
may overtake the Government. Yet, sir, should such 
results appear, they will be ascribable altogether, in 
their fullest measure of responsibility, to the friends of 
the administration themselves, with whom these pro- 



IN CONGRESS 155 

ceedings originated. I desire to enforce upon the 
House and the country the truth, which no gentleman 
here will venture to contradict, that this measure, in its 
commencement, progress, and consequences, is a meas- 
ure of the friends of the Administration, designed, at 
the hazard of great public injury, to attain objects to 
wdiich I shall hereafter advert. 

Why, sir, what is the nature of the proceeding in 
which the House now finds itself involved ! For fifty 
years the Government has existed under the present 
Constitution; in the lapse of which, the nation has 
passed through all the vicissitudes of peace and war, 
of prosperity and adversity, of tranquility and excite- 
ment, and all else, save civil war (and that it has 
scarcely escaped), to which republics are exposed. Yet 
our history is without a precedent for this proceeding. 
It is new, wholly new. It presents an epoch in that 
history certainly an epoch in the history of this House? 
What is it ? 

On the 26th of February last, sir, the death of the 
Hon. Jonathan Cilley, a member from the State of 
Maine, was announced to the House by one of his col- 
leagues (Mr. Fairfield), and the customary funeral 
honors awarded. For this there was precedent. Two 
days afterwards, however, that same colleagu3 intro- 
duced resolutions proposing an investigation into the 
cause which led to the death, and the circumstances 
attending it. For this there was no precedent. Here, 
sir, the extraordinary features of the proceeding com- 
menced. 

The orentleman from ]\Iaine and others now asso- 

o 

ciated with him maintain that the extraordinary nature 
of the event warranted and demanded such an extra- 
ordinary investigation. Sir, extraordinary in what? 
It involved a duel between members of the House of 
Representatives. Well, suppose it did. How many 
such duels had previously occurred, publicly and no- 
toriously? Need I, sir, enumerate the instances in 
which gentlemen, now members of this House, par- 



156 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

ticipated? It is in vain to pretend that any solid dis- 
tinction exists between those instances and the present, 
that death ensued from the latter. The offence, so far 
as this House is authorized to recognize it, consists in 
the challenge, its acceptance, and the combat. The re- 
sult is wholly immaterial. 

But, sir, if the proceeding itself was extraordinary, 
its form was still more so. It was a general inquiry. 
It pointed to nothing particularly. Its scope was not 
announced. It was believed by many who supported 
the resolutions, that they were designed merely to ex- 
hibit the lamentable event to which they related in such 
a light as to insure the enactment by Congress of some 
law, or the adoption of this House of some rule, cal- 
culated to suppress the practice, out of which it orig- 
inated. The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Adams) has clearly signified to the House that this 
main purpose in supporting the inquiry did not extend 
beyond such measures; and that it could in no other 
aspect have commanded his support. Other gentlemen 
have declared the same sentiments. Such, I am war- 
ranted in saying, were the sentiments of the House 
when adopting the resolutions. 

It is nevertheless now insisted by the mover of the 
resolutions (Mr. Fairfield) and others, that such was 
no part of what was meditated ; that they looked to 
that case only, and not to future cases ; that their object 
was the punishment of offenders ; and that they aimed 
at members of this House. The committee have mani- 
festly proceeded with the same view ; and, as appears 
from the range of their investigation and the report 
they have offered, having supposed their powers plen- 
ary to that end, both as to matters and persons, have 
acted up to that supposition. The report which pre- 
sents the results of their operations is now submitted 
to the House, and the proposition immediately before 
us is the printing of this report, and the postponement 
of its consideration for two weeks. 



IN CONGRESS 157 

This proposition, sir, is resisted. Amongst otliers, 
I resist it. I admit, at the same time, that the course 
proposed is the customary course, not to be deviated 
from without strong reason. Such reason, however, 
does, in my opinion, exist. If it cannot be shown to 
exist, I am quite wilhng that the customary course 
shall be adhered to, and the proposition prevail. On 
what grounds, then, sir, is the proposition resisted? 

The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Robertson) 
maintains that the action of the committee is zcJwlly 
irregular and ^inauthorized ; that they had no power 
to extend their investigations as they liave done, or to 
report what they have reported. Such, too, is my 
opinion. Should this view be just it is plain that the 
report should not be printed, or in any form, receive 
the sanction or countenance of the House; for if it be 
printed, it must be for the purpose of ulterior use. If 
it cannot, from its obvious irregularity and defects, be 
used in any event, to print it would be nugatory. It 
would be worse ; it would operate as an implied sanc- 
tion by the House of the irregularity and defects to 
which I have referred. To prove, therefore, that the 
whole proceeding of the committee was irregular and 
destitute of authority from the House, is to prove that 
the report ought not to be printed. This I propose to 
prove. 

A committee of the House of Representatives have 
preferred formal accusations against three tnembers of 
this House for higJi delinquencies, and have accom- 
panied these accusations with elaborate arguments and 
a display of proofs, closing with resolutions for the 
expulsion of one and the censure of others. Had the 
committee the right or power to prefer such accusa- 
tions, is the true inquiry. It is nakedly a question of 
power in the committee. 

Is it no inconsiderable matter, sir, with a citizen, 
especially one occupying the station of a representa- 
tive of the people, to have an accusation framed against 
him, and promulgated amongst his countrymen? By 



158 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEE'DE 

a bare accusation, his reputation, which is a portion, 
and the best portion, of all that belongs to him, is not 
only exposed to injury, but oftentimes to absolute de- 
struction. It connects him in the minds of men with 
an offence. A few may be philosophical or just 
enough to suspend their judgments, and remain un- 
affected even in their feelings, until evidence and de- 
fence shall have been heard. But, sir, none regard the 
accused in a more favorable light because accused. 
Men's minds are so organized that they turn away, 
not only from what is disagreeable, but from the idea 
with which it is associated. This, however, is but the 
private view of the mischiefs of an accusation. I rest 
it on higher reasons of a public nature. 

The accusing power in a State, sir, is a great power. 
It is liable, by abuse, to administer to the worst 
tyranny. In most free countries, England and the 
United States especially, the greatest circumspection 
has, for that reason, been observed in deposing this 
formidable power. It may be affirmed of both these 
enlightened nations, that the limitations and restraints 
which they have imposed on this power in the institu- 
tion of the grand jury, class justly among the firmest 
and strongest pillars of civil liberty. I will not trace 
the history of this institution, nor expose, at length, 
the deep policy on which in my opinion, it reposes, nor 
review the mass of blessing it has conferred, and of 
misery and oppression it has averted, in its progress. 
This must be fresh in the memory of all who have 
studied the rise of modern freedom, and the instru- 
ments by which it has advanced, and maintained itself. 

It is true, sir, that a private individual may impute, 
charge an offence. Proceedings may be adopted 
against the supposed offender, in the form of warrant 
and arrest. But this does not constitute in strictness 
an accusation, which can be made only through a 
regular tribunal — the grand jury — the sanction of 
which is interposed as a condition to the accusation. 
The protection which is thus afforded to liberty, results 



IN CONGRESS 



159 



necessarily from the composition of that body, without 
adverting to other causes. 

I trust, however, that, in the United States, an argu- 
ment is not required, at this advanced period of its in- 
stitutions, to estabhsh the proposition that the accusing 
power is of vast magnitude, tliat it should be jealously 
circumscribed and most vigilantly guarded ; that tlie 
institution of the grand jury is the only instrument 
known, which presents adequate guarantees against 
the abuse of the power to the ends of tyrannv and 
oppression; and that not only that institution itself, 
where it operates, but all its analogies where it does 
not operate, should be anxiously cherished as portions 
of the armor of freedom. 

So far. sir, as the House of Representatives of the 
United States assumes the power of proceeding, crimi- 
nally, by its separate action, against its own members, 
it is manifest that it cannot employ a grand jury as 
the organ of accusation, no matter how faint or deep 
the delinquency. There is plainly no adaptation. If 
the accusing power, therefore, is, in such cases, limited 
at all, it must be by other means. Do such means 
exist? Is there no safeguard against irresponsible 
and oppressive accusation, otialogous to that afforded 
by the grand jury? Are the representatives of the 
people exposed, to the extent of the criminal jurisdic- 
tion of the House, to all the mischiefs which the Con- 
stitutions of the United States and of every State in 
the Union have sought so sedulously to avert from the 
private citizens by the employment of tlie grand jury? 
I maintain that an analogous safeguard has been pro- 
vided by the House, which, if fairly exerted, is ample. 

It consists, sir, in the law of Parliament and of this 
House, that no member shall be proceeded against, in 
such cases, for an alleged offence, without a direct 
charge against him, by name, before the House, in 
writing, under the sanction and authority of the House 
expressly given; and this, too, usually in a form 
authorizing the members to be heard in exculpation in 



l60 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^EE 

advance of any action of the House tending to an accu- 
sation. This is deducible, clearly, from the estab- 
lished usage of Parliament, fortified by a series of 
precedents in the House and in the Senate, and from 
the rules of the House. 

The effect of this provision for the protection of 
members is, by requiring the imputation to be directly 
announced to the House itself in the first instance, to 
enable the House to consider the imputation, and de- 
termine for itself whether it will authorize an accusa- 
tion to be instituted ; in other words, to bring the 
House to a preliminary trial, in which the member is 
entitled to be heard, not in his defence, for no accusa- 
tion exists, but to show, if he can, that he ought not to 
be accused. 

The point, sir, from which, in the absence of the 
security which I have stated, pernicious accusations 
might be most effectively aimed at members, is 
through committees. Being part of the organization 
of the House, the subjects embraced by their sphere of 
duty are co-extensive with the powers of the House, 
and nearly with the transactions of life. It would be 
against uniform experience that the committee ^ if 
armed with an accusing power, should not, in so wide 
a range, seize some occasion to connect the names of 
members become offensive by their opposition, or for- 
midable by their talents, with some delinquency, or 
abuse, or crime, and present them to their countrymen 
in the light of accused culprits, with the view to the de- 
struction of their influence. Such is the tendency of 
party everywhere. The principles on which commit- 
tees of this House are composed are notorious; they 
relate, sir, as you know, chiefly, if not altogether, to the 
distribution of party honors, or the advancement of 
party ends. As, therefore, the greatest danger was to 
be apprehended from committees, so against them pro- 
tection has been most cautiously extended by the laws 
of the House. 



IN congre;ss i6i 

Accordingly, sir, it is expressly provided in Jeffer- 
son's compilation of Parliamentary law, (adopted by 
our rules as the law of the House) that 

"When a committee is charged with an inquiry, if a 
member prove to be involved, they cannot proceed 
against him, but must make a special report to the 
House : whereupon, the member is heard in his place, 
or at the bar, or a special authority is given to the com- 
mittee to inquire concerning him." 

Sir, can anything be more explicit, directly appli- 
cable, or decisive than this ? Here the committee was 
"charged with an inquiry," and "a member proved to 
be involved." This no one contests. What then was 
the duty, the simple duty, of the committee in that con- 
tingency? To "make a special report." unquestion- 
ably. But they did not make such a report. "They 
cannot proceed against" a member. Did they pause, 
much less stop short? No, sir; but did proceed 
against him to the extreme point of resolutions of 
expulsion! The member was entitled to be "heard in 
his place at the bar." He was not heard. "A special 
authority" was to have been given to the committee to 
inquire concerning him. Yet it was not given ; never 
applied for! Is this, sir, in conformity to the law 
stated ! No man of understanding, I think, can sup- 
pose so. It is the exact opposite of the law in every 
essential particular; and that, I had imagined until 
now, involved a violation of law. 

Sir, this law has not been answered ; and it cannot be 
answered. 

I shall not undertake to account for this extraordi- 
nary deportment of the committee. That they have 
transcended their powers, in a form disreputable to the 
House, and flagrantly injurious and unjust to indi- 
viduals, is plain. The explanation most compatible 
with their honor, in my opinion, is ignorance of the 
extent of their powers and duties, and of the right of 
the House and its members. To suppose them advised 
II 



1 62 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

of the foregoing law limiting those powers and duties, 
and defining those rights, is to pronounce that they 
have wilfully trampled it under foot, for purposes 
which neither the House nor the public will be at a loss 
to discover. Inadvertance on the one hand, and de- 
liberate outrage on the other, lie before them. I leave 
them to their choice. 

It is apparent, however, I think, sir, that no matter 
by what influence, sinister or upright, the committee 
were impelled, they had no knowledge of the law which 
has been referred to. Indeed, one of the committee, 
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Grantland,) has 
admitted, very cordially, that he was not informed of 
the existence of such a law; that he had no suspicion 
that the circumstances of a member being involved 
could operate an abridgement of the powers of the 
committee; that they were persuaded from the begin- 
ning on the supposition that those powers were plen- 
ary; and complain that those who now urge this law 
did not state it before the committee proceeded to act. 
What that gentleman thus admits, with respect to 
himself, was doubtless true of his associates of the 
majority, who, I regret, have not displayed equal 
candor ; it might have spared the House much debate. 
That the law in question was not pressed at the time, 
is readily explained by reflecting that no one had a 
right to assume, in advance, that the committee would 
violate it. 

The committee notwithstanding, still persist in 
urging their report upon the House, by laboring to 
reconcile their action with the law now that it is 
known; not that they acted in reference ^o the law, 
but conformed to it by accidental coincidence! By 
what arguments, sir, is this newly conceived pretence 
sought to be maintained ? 

It is contended that the committee were "specially 
authorized" by the House to proceed against the mem- 
bers whom they have accused, by the resolutions of 
28th of February, by which the comm.ittee were raised. 
Look, sir, at these resolutions. What are they? 



IN CONGRESS 163 

''Resolved, That a committee, consisting of seven 
members, be appointed to investigate the cause which 
led to the death of the Honorable Jonathan Cilley, late 
a member of this House, and the circumstances con- 
nected therewith ; and, further, to inquire whether 
there has been, in the case alluded to, a breach of the 
privileges of this House. 

"Resolved, That the said committee be instructed to 
inquire into the means more effectually to suppress the 
practice of duelling, and report a bill for that purpose 
at as early a period as may be practicable." 

Where, sir, in these resolutions, is found a special 
authority to proceed against meuihers, or a special 
authority of any kind? They w^arrant, I admit, an 
inquiry into a supposed breach of the privileges of the 
House; but, in a form no more special than in cases 
of inquiry into any other subject. In all, tJie subject 
of inquiry is stated, as in this ; but stated generally, as 
in this. Here, no individual is named, no offence 
charged, either in respect to members or others. 
Members may have been involved: they may not. 
This, like any other subject of investigation, may have 
embraced the transactions of members ; it may not. 
Either supposition is perfectly consistent wxXh the 
terms of the resolutions. Had the inquiry been into 
supposed abuses in the Indian affairs of the public 
lands, instead of breach of privilege, the authority to 
the committee would have been precisely the same. 
The subject of investigation would have been specific; 
all else general. Yet, who would risk his character 
for intelligence, by maintaining in his place that, under 
a general inquiry of the kind, the delinquencies, real 
or fabricated, of members of this House, could without 
further authority, be investigated, and those members 
proceeded against, accused, and presented to the na- 
tion, by the report of a committee, as culprits unworthy 
of honorable association, and meriting instant expul- 
sion from their seats? In such a case it is manifest 
that the House must be immediately notified of the 



164 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEl^EE 

implication of members, by a special report, that the 
House itself might take action, either in arresting the 
investigation, or specially authorising the committee 
to proceed. Well, sir, what distinguishes such an in- 
quiry from the present? In both the subject of in- 
quiry is stated — abuses in the one, breach of privilege 
in the other; but nothing special in either. Neither 
supposed the implication of members. Both are 
essentially general. 

It is gravely argued, however, by gentlemen, that 
no matter what the resolutions may express, the 
House zvell knezv the facts of the transaction to ayWcIi 
the inquiry related, and, of course, that members were 
involved; that they were notorious! If such an 
argument merited a serious refutation, it would. I 
think, be sufficient to ask, why, if all was known and 
notorious, institute an inquiry at all? Why not 
proceed at once upon this knowledge? If the House 
be justified in assuming the facts for one purpose, it 
certainly may be for all. Why not instantly expel? 

I concede, sir, that the public rumor and notoriety of 
facts are quite sufficient for many purposes. In the 
language of the parliamentary law, "common fame is 
a good ground for the House to proceed by inquiry, 
and even to accusation." The House, acting on the 
common fame of the event, might, undoubtedly, have 
directly instituted proceedings against such members 
as that common fame may have indicated as criminally 
connected with it. The mover of these resolutions 
acting upon the same authority, would as clearly have 
been warranted in exhibiting appropriate charges 
against the members by name, and demanding a com- 
mittee, with special authority, to proceed against them. 
But, sir, the question is, not what the House upon 
such authority might have done, but what it in point of 
fact has done. It can, with no reason, be pretended 
that the resolutions as they stand on the journal admit 
of the slightest abridgement or enlargement by refer- 
ence to fame, rumor, or anything else extraneous. I 



IN CONGRESS 165 

repeat, sir, the House is now required to ascertain, not 
what its powers in given cases would be, but what its 
action in this case has been. Our successors, in re- 
viewing this proceeding, will do so through the records 
of the House. They will look to nothing else. Fame, 
rumor, common understanding are fugitives, perish- 
able; the resolutions, the records are permanent and 
perpetual, and, like other records, impart absolute 
verity. They only will speak; and they must speak 
for themselves. 

Driven, sir, as I think all candid men must 
acknowledge, from the positions that accusatory power 
was specifically conferred on them by the language of 
the resolutions, and that the effect of the resolutions 
admitted of extension by reference to matter not con- 
tained in them, the committee now seek to derive the 
power from a different source altogether. The refer- 
ence of certain petitions and memorials is relied on as 
operating an enlargement of their original powers 
under the resolutions. That no such effort was pro- 
duced or intended to such reference, I leave the House 
to the very able and extended arguments of others, 
especially of those by whom most of the petitions were 
presented. If any thing, however, were wanting to 
prov^e that the committee acted independently of the 
petitions, and without the smallest reference to them, 
so far as their powers are concerned, it will be found, 
in the most convincing form, in their own journal; 
from which it appears that the mass of the evidence, 
indeed all that is essential to their accusation, was 
taken, and the whole course of the committee distinctly 
indicated, before the first petition was referred. They 
had sat more than two weeks, before any reference of 
the kind was made ; and then it produced no deviation 
from the direction which was given to the inquiry m 
the first instance. 

But, sir, frustrated in their efforts to deduce the 
power of the committee from any positive delegation 
by the House, it is claimed as derived by surrender of 



l66 RICHARD HICKMAN MENI^FEE 

the parties accused, who it is insisted, voluntarily ap- 
peared before the committee and offered testimony in 
defence, and thereby waived rights which they might 
otherwise possess. The answer to this pretension is, 
that it does not appear by the journal or otherwise that 
the members involved received, at any time, the 
slightest intimation that an accusation against them 
was meditated by the committee. But if they had been 
notified of the facts in the most formal manner, and 
had, in a manner equally formal, signified their consent 
to the assumption by the committee of the power to 
accuse by a distinct waiver of their privileges, whatever 
they might be, still the question of power on the part 
of the committee would remain unaffected ; for by the 
law of the House "the privilege of a member is the 
privilege of the House. If the member waive it 
without leave, it is a ground for punishing him, but 
cannot, in effect, waive the privilege of the House." 
This law, sir, requires neither enforcement nor com- 
ment. 

That last resort, sir, is, that no matter how irregular 
or unjustifiable the proceedings of the committee may 
be, the public voice demands their ratification by the 
House. That voice I trust always most profoundly to 
respect. I acknowledge, sir, that a deep sensation 
amongst the people of the United States has been pro- 
duced by the transaction to which these proceedings 
relate. So far from deploring, I take the highest sat- 
isfaciion in beholding it. It is the spontaneous tribute 
of the nation to the cause of law, morality, and religion. 
It affords occasion for patriotic exultation. I do 
exult. But, sir, the. feeling of which I speak is not 
what some gentlemen suppose it to be. It is no partial 
or party feeling. It looks not to this particular case, 
or to particular persons. It looks to the practice, to 
the future, to the enactment of laws, and the correc- 
tion of public sentiment. It rests its condemnation, so 
far as condemnation is passed, alike upon the survivor 
and the deceased. It regards the wrong, or misfor- 



IN CONGRESS 



167 



tune, or crime, or whatever you denominate it, as one 
of mutual agreement, to settle by violence and blood a 
private misunderstanding. One fell; it was no fault 
or merit of his that the survivor did not. Whose de- 
linquency was greatest? The fatal resort was the 
fruit, certainly of the coercion of a vitiated public 
opinion; and individual guilt depends upon the in- 
tensity of the coercion. Which party could most 
easily have resisted that coercion? Amongst whose 
constituents did public opinion demand such a resort. 
Amongst whose did it forbid^ Who most defied the 
laws, the religion, the ancient and established usages, 
and opinions, and prejudices of those who surrounded 
him, and to whom he was responsible ? The survivor 
or the fallen? Sir, these considerations enter, unless 
I greatly misconceive, into that public feeling of which 
the House has heard so much in this debate. Whilst 
you sit in judgment upon the living, and condemn him, 
that same public opinion will visit a like measure of 
condemnation on the memory of the dead. 

Yet, sir, this deep, this just feeling of the people 
has, in my opinion, been disappointed, bitterly, by the 
action of this committee. Weeping over an event 
which could not be recalled, the nation hoped, as it had 
a right to hope, that the committee would act in a 
spirit and adopt measures calculated, by rectifying 
public opinion, to bless the country in the suppression 
of a practice replete with woe. But the painful spec- 
tacle has been exhibited of a transformation of a com- 
mittee occupying the position of ministers of peace, 
into a lawless gang, trampling down, in the furious 
pursuit of a victim, all the restraints and forms that 
opposed their career of ferocity! Forgetting almost, 
in their eagerness, even to allude to the practice, and in 
their report doing nothing, recommending nothing for 
its suppression ! 

It is equally an error, sir, in my opinion, to imagine 
that men of intelligence in the United States regard 
this transaction as involving, on either side, the guilt 



1 68 RICHARD HICKMAN MllNEl^II:^ 

of deliberate crime. In the eye of law, and perhaps of 
reason, it may involve all the practical mischiefs of 
crime. But, in general, such events proceed from no 
felon source, but from a deep-seated vice of society 
and manners, if not from an infirmity of nature itself. 
I but speak the voice of history and experience when 
I insist that any other judgment respecting the prac- 
tice of duelling is superficial and little to be trusted. 
It cannot be forgotten that it has been, to a degree 
almost peculiar, the fate of the great and virtuous of 
mankind to bow to the demands of this practice. 
Lafayette, Pitt, Fox, Castlereagh and multitudes like 
them, rank as illustrious but deplorable examples, not 
sir, of the zvickedness, but of the infirmity in which 
this pernicious practice is rooted. In our own coun- 
try, too, and in our own times, the same tribute has 
been paid to the same infirmity by names not illustrious 
enough, I grant, to transform a vice into virtue, but 
certainly to dignify it above crime in its common 
acceptation. 

Besides, sir, when a community of freemen like that 
of the United States demand of this House, by petition 
or otherwise, the punishment of delinquency, real or 
supposed, they intend and expect it to be administered 
under the forms of lazu. They cannot be supposed to 
desire the law and all the analogies of the Constitution 
to be violated, in order to reach an alleged violation of 
law. To torture their petitions, or expressions of 
opinion in other forms, into a demand for the ratifica- 
tion of proceedings admitted to be irregular and un- 
authorized, is, therefore, both to mistake and insult 
tliem. 

From the public voice, then, sir, no aid can be de- 
rived. 

Mr. Speaker, all the difficulties with which the 
House now finds itself surrounded plainly proceed 
from an effort to impart a special character to a pro- 
ceeding essentially general. If these resolutions were 
meant for a special effect, why were they not expressed 



IN CONGRESS 



169 



in special terms? The gentleman from Maine, (Mr. 
Fairfield), who introduced them, could have prevented 
all difficulty by proceeding directly, by name, against 
the members supposed to be implicated. Why did he 
not thus proceed ? Such had been the unbroken prac- 
tice in such cases from the first exercise of such a 
power by the House. Why, I demand of that gentle- 
man to know, was it departed from in this instance? 
His colleague had fallen, within his knowledge, under 
circumstances involving, as the gentleman then 
believed and now contends, a violation, by members of 
the House, of its highest privileges, so flagrant as to 
merit expulsion, and to demand of him to adopt meas- 
ures to that end. All this he claims to have known. 
Now, sir, why did not the gentleman specify the 
offence? The perpetrators? The intended punish- 
ment? Was he restrained by his modesty? His deli- 
cacy towards the delinquents? Or an infirmity of 
nerve? The country demands an answer. 

No, sir; if reasons are to be sought to explain the 
extraordinary form of these resolutions, they are to be 
found in the extraordinary attitude of the party to 
which the gentleman belongs, with respect to this sub- 
ject. That party has long since, in the most solemn 
manner, dented the pozuer of the House of Represen- 
tatives to punish, by its separate action, as a breach of 
privilege, any offence not committed in the immediate 
view of the House, or invohnng a direct disturbance 
or obstructions of its proceedings. 

I proceed, sir, to bring the attention of the House 
and of the nation to the two most recent expositions 
of the principles of that party in respect to this power 
of the House. They are to be found in the celebrated 
proceedings of the House of Representatives against 
Samuel Houston, now President of the Republic of 
Texas; and in those disposing of the application of the 
Hon. E. Cooke, a Representative from the State of 
Ohio, demanding the exertion of the same power. 
These expositions are peculiarly authoritative, or ought 



I/O RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

to be, with the party. They are displays of its princi- 
ples when in their extreme proportion. They are pro- 
ductions of 1832, when the elements were boiling and 
bubbling in a caldron more terrific than that of Mac- 
beth's witches, combining and condensing the dreadful 
mischiefs which have recently ovenvhelmed the coun- 
try. They occurred before the first inroad was made on 
its ascendancy. It was the rank growth, then green and 
waving; now become the stubble through which the 
devouring flames of popular condemnation have of 
late, like horizontal lightning, so fiercely swept. They 
are precedents, sir, perfect in their kind. 

On the 14th of April, 1832, the Speaker laid before 
the House of Representatives the following communi- 
cation : 

"To the Hon. Andrew Stevenson, 

"Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
"Sir, I was waylaid in the street, near my boarding 
house, last night, about eight o'clock, and attacked, 
knocked down by a bludgeon, and severely bruised and 
wounded, by Samuel Houston, late of Tennessee, for 
words spoken in my place in the House of Representa- 
tives; by reason of which I am confined to my bed, 
and unable to discharge my duties in the House, and 
attend to the interests of my constituents. I commu- 
nicate this information to you, and request that you 
will lay it before the House. 

"Very respectfully, yours, 

"William Stanbery, 
"Member of the House of Rep's, from Ohio. 
"April 14th, 1832." 

A resolution was thereupon offered by Mr. Vance, 
of Ohio, the colleague of the gentleman, proposing that 
the House should proceed against Houston for this 
supposed breach of privilege. 

On the 14th of May, sir, of the same year, the Hon. 
E. Cooke, of Ohio, rose in his place, and said "that 
he held in his hand a letter from a Dr. Davis, of South 



IN CONGRESS 



171 



Carolina, one of the witnesses who had testified in the 
late trial of Samuel Houston, which had been pre- 
sented to him by a person stating his name to be Alex- 
ander Dimitry, of Louisiana, as the friend of said 
Davis, which, together with the statement of facts 
connected with it, he asked leave to send it to the Chair, 
that it might be read for the information of the House. 
In submitting this request, Mr. Cooke said he wished 
it to be distinctly understood that without in the least 
waiving his personal rights as a member, or intending, 
in any manner, to compromise either the rights or 
constitutional powers of the House, it was, neverthe- 
less, not his purpose, individually, to claim the institu- 
tion of any proceeding whatever on his own account 
upon the subject matter of that communication. Such 
had not been his motives in presenting the letter : his 
personal rights formed no part in the object by which 
he was governed. Other and higher motives 
prompted him to this step — motives, which, overlook- 
ing every consideration of personal feeling and per- 
sonal security, regard the very existence of this House, 
the inviolable rights of the people of this country, and 
the dignity and honor of this nation." The letter was 
as follows : 

"Brown's Hotel, May 12th, 1832. 

"Sir : During my examination before the House of 
Representatives, in the case of General Houston, you 
very impertinently asked, among other questions, my 
business in this city. Whilst the trial of General Hous- 
ton was pending, I deferred calling on you for the 
explanation which I nozv demand, through my friend. 
General Dimitry. 

"I am, very respectfully, your most obedient, 

"E. S. Davis. 

"Hon. E. Cooke." 

Accompanying the foregoing letter, Mr. Cooke sub- 
mitted the following statement : 

"On the trial of Samuel Houston for an assault on 



172 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

a member of this House, which has just terminated, a 
person by the name of E. S. Davis was examined as a 
witness on behalf of the accused, and, on his cross 
examination, I propounded to him several interroga- 
tories. After he had left the stand, and while on the 
floor of the House, he said, apparently referring to 
myself, and in a tone of menace, that 'there will be 
another hauled up here' soon. 

"On Saturday last the accompanying note was 
handed me by a person calling himself .Vlexander 
Dimitry. To the persons, character, and calling of 
these individuals. I am an utter stranger. 

"Had 1 considered this a mere personal matter, I 
should have passed it by without this notice; but all 
the circumstances of the case do, in my opinion, pre- 
clude the idea that it is so. And connected, as' this is, 
with other instances of attempts, by menace and vio- 
lence, to overawe the members of this body, and curb 
the freedom of debate, I have thought it my duty, in 
behalf of the American people, and especially that por- 
tion of them whom I represent, to present this matter 
to the House. 

"E. Cooke, Rep. from Ohio. 

"May 14th, 1832." 

This communication, sir, was followed, as in the 
case of Houston, by resolutions offered by Mr, Crane, 
of Ohio, a colleague of Mr. Cooke, proposing to pro- 
ceed as for a breach of privilege. 

It cannot be necessary, I think, to enforce the strict 
analogy, in principle, between those cases and the 
present; it must be manifest. That of Cooke is not 
only analogous in principle, but nearly identical in 
circumstances. It is, indeed, a stronger case than this ; 
for the letter of Davis was a simple and direct chal- 
lenge, borne by his second, given, avowedly, for mat- 
ter transpiring in the House. 

No just distinction, sir, can be established between 
the proceedings referred to and the present, because in 



IN CONGRESS 



173 



them the House contemplated action against private 
citizens, not inenihers; for, in all, the contested prin- 
ciple was the right and power of the House to punish, 
as a breach of its privileges, an offence not committed 
in its presence. It was accordingly argued through- 
out as a question of power on the part of the House, 
without regard to the objects on which it was to be 
exercised. To show that the committee in the present 
case repudiate such a distinction, it is but necessary to 
refer to their report, which expressly holds private 
citizens connected with the transaction amenable to 
this power of the House, but not meriting, for peculiar 
reasons, an exercise of it. 

Well, sir, how did the House dispose of the two 
cases to which I have referred? Without fatiguing 
the House with a review of all that was said and 
acted in the progress of these memorable proceedings, 
I shall content myself with referring you to the 
speeches and conduct of a distinguished gentleman, 
then and yet belonging to the party, and now, as then, 
a member of the House ; who is, at this moment, in 
the fruition of the highest honors that the House can 
confer either as a tribute to talents and virtue, or as a 
compensation for unscrupulous partisan devotion ; a 
gentleman, sir, who whatever may be the feebleness of 
his abilities, or the insignificance of his authority in 
the estimation of others, with you, I know, possesses 
commanding influence. That gentleman was the 
champion selected by the party to denounce to the 
nation its principles with respect to this power of the 
House. He uttered, moreover, by his own declara- 
tion, the opinion of the head of the party himself, then 
President of the United States. What were those 
principles ? I answer, sir, in the exact language of the 
distinguished gentleman himself : 

"Every gentleman," said he, "must be aware that a 
great difference of opinion always had existed as to 
the pozcer of that House to punish os a contempt any 
act which did not interrupt or impede the business of 



174 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEE'EE 

the House. * * * He did not admit that the 
House possessed any such pozver; and he beheved that 
a great majority of that House, upon a dehberate and 
full examination of the question, would hold the same 
distinguished gentleman himself : 

"He would ask whether it was not equally a con- 
tempt of the House for a citizen to challenge one of its 
members to mortal combat? Was that not as much a 
breach of its privilege as the present case? Should a 
member of a co-ordinate branch call a member of that 
House into the field to mortal combat, would not that 
be as much a contempt also as this ? And has not that 
been done and passed by without notice? Or, if the 
Head of an Executive Department should do the same 
thing, would not the breach of privilege be as great? 
And was not that done a few years ago ? Where was 
the limit to such a power, if you take cognizance of 
such cases as this? How was it to be defined or 
restrained? He could not perceive; and he therefore 
considered it as totally inconsistent with the spirit of 
our institutions. * * * When this case was first 
brought to our notice, Src, I expressed to the House 
the opinion hastily formed, which I at that time enter- 
tained, in regard to its powers to try and punish for 
this offence. Upon full examination of the question, 
I am confirmed in the opinion that this House is in- 
vested zvith no authority under the Constitution or 
laws of the land to punish as for a contempt, or viola- 
tion of its privileges, any oifence committed not in the 
presence of the House during its session, or in such 
manner as to disturb its proceedings. * * * Let 
us first examine the arguments of that class of gentle- 
men who maintain that the power may be found in the 
Constitution. It is said that by the sixth section of 
the first article, 'Senators and Representatives shall 
be privileged from arrest,' &c ; 'and for any speech or 
debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in 
any other place.' * * * The latter clause of the 
sentence is equally clear. It intended to provide, 



IN CONGRESS 



175 



simply, that for 'any speech or debate in either House,' 
the member shall not be held to answer in any other 
place. That he shall not, for example, be subject to 
be prosecuted in the courts for libellous words spoken 
in debate; or be held to answer in an action of slander. 
Do these exemptions to members of Congress, confer 
the power on cither House to punish? &c, * * * 
What are your privileges? The Constitution is silent 
in regard to them. You have passed no law declaring 
them. They are unknown and unidentified. If they 
exist, no citizen can know what they are, nor the sanc- 
tion which attaches to a violation of them. Both their 
nature and the punishment which you may inflict rest, 
in the sovereign, arbitrary, and despotic discretion of 
this House. * * * It is unquestionably true that, 
for words spoken in debate, the member of Congress 
can at no future period, however remote, be prosecuted 
for a libel, or sued for slander. And should it be at- 
tempted, he may plead his constitutional exemption in 
bar. But, because this is the case, it cannot, surely, be 
contended that he is protected, more than any other 
citizens, from personal violence. * * * jf the 
doctrine of privilege in England is the law here, I 
demand of them to show me how it has become the 
law binding upon Congress. Has it been adopted, in 
part or in whole, by the Constitution or laws? That 
is not pretended. The truth is. they cannot be of any 
sort of authority in either branch of Congress, either 
as law, or guides for our proceeding. They have not 
and in the nature of things they cannot have, any appli- 
cation in our Congress, and must be zvholly rejected. 
"The question submitted to the decision of the con- 
stituents of every gentleman here is, whether, under a 
Government where there are no separate orders, the 
public functionaries are to be elevated above the Con- 
stitution and lazvs, and take into their own hands the 
despotic and odious power of avenging their own vio- 
lated dignity, whenever they may, in their unbounded 
discretion, choose to consider that it has been 
infringed. 



176 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFES 

"I undertake to show, sir, that the power which this 
House now assumes to exercise without law is the 
identical power which Congress attempted to assume 
in the enactment of the 'alien and sedition laws' ; and 
that the arguments adduced to sustain it are the same 
arguments adduced in 1798 to sustain the constitution- 
ality of the 'alien and the sedition law.' 

"The power is despotic, depending upon your whim, 
caprice, or arbitrary will, and is, therefore, if possible. 
a g7'eater invasion of the rights of the citizen, and 
more despotic and arbitrary than even these obnoxious 
lazvs. * * * * 

"But, if it be conceded that, m high party times, in 
periods of high political excitement, or in cases where 
the jurisdiction and power of the House were not 
drawn in question, the House may have exercised the 
power, the answer to any argument drawn from such 
premises is an easy one. It is, that one usurpation can 
never cither justify or sanction another. * * * 

"To show the absurdity of the exercise of such a 
power by this House, if it possessed it, without law, 
I ask the House what punishment it will inflict if the 
accused be found guilty of a contempt or violation of 
privilege in this case? * * * You have the same 
power to impose one as another. You have the same 
power to punish with death or the amputation of a 
limb, that you have to inflict any other. * * * 

"The evidence before us shows that when the mem- 
ber from Ohio first thought himself in danger of an 
attack from the accused, he did not then bring his 
complaint to this House, but prepared himself zuith 
deadly weapons for mortal combat, and put himself on 
his personal defence. By so doing, he zuaived the 
privilege, if he had any, which it is now insisted has 
been violated. He was, in fact, armed at the meeting, 
and his adversary was unarmed. He happened to get 
the zvorse of the rencontre, and then the complaint is 
made to this House and we are called on to avenge the 
zvrongs which he has suffered. If the member from 



IN CONGRESS 



177 



Ohio had been the victor in the combat; if his pistol 
had not misseci fire; and had he disabled or slain the 
accused, this House would never have been troubled 
with the case. But as he happened to be unfortunate 
in the fight, we are told that our dignity has been 
insulted, and our high privileges invaded. * * * 

"Sir, I know that it is, at all times, an ungracious 
argument to address to any body of men like this, 
when you tell them that they possess no power to do 
that which they are strongly desirous of doing. All 
history instructs us that whenever the rulers of other 
countries have strongly desired to possess and exer- 
cise a power of any kind, they have never failed to look 
out for specious pretexts to do so. * * * 

"I am sure I shall be borne out by gentlemen on all 
sides of the House, when I say further that the whole 
proceeding in this case shows us to be the most unfit 
triers; and that, in periods of high party excitement, 
this enormous power may be used, and probably will 
be, to the great oppression of the citizen. What ex- 
citement and warmth of feeling have we witnessed on 
this trial? How unlike grave judges have we occa- 
sionally appeared! * * * Here we have been, at 
the most important period of the session, engaged near 
a month in trying it. I take upon myself no part of 
the responsibility of this useless consumption of the 
time of the House. I voted against the arrest, and 
have, from the commencement of the trial, viewed the 
whole proceeding as a usurpation of pozcer." * * * 

Who, sir, was this "most righteous judge," this 
"second Daniel," this Aaron, this "spokesman of his 
party," to them "instead of a mouth," in this exposi- 
tion of the powers of the House and the principles of 
the Constitution? 

(The Speaker here interrupted him as lie had re- 
peatedly done before whilst on this branch of the 
subject.) 

In this oracle, sir, you make, I know, a kindred rec- 



12 



li 



178 RICHARD HICKMAN MENDl^EE) 

ognition. Yes, sir, in him you but behold yourself. 
Your own consciousness whispers, what the public 
voice will thunder, in your ear, "thou art the man!" 
The review may be painful. Like him who had "done 
the deed," you may exclaim — 

"I'll go no more: 
I am afraid to think what I have done ; 
Look on't again I dare not." 

Still, the deed is done. There stands the record. 

Who could have supposed, sir, that, after all this, 
these principles would, within so short a period, have 
been abandoned, and those who maintained them be 
found, as they now are, ostensibly urging the exercise 
of a power then denounced as illegal, unconstitutional, 
usurped, despotic, odious! Can it be possible — can 
such shameless repudiation of opinions and principles 
be credited as that the exercise of that same power by 
that same party is really meditated in this case? I do 
not believe, sir, that it is meditated, or at any time has 
been. I am, on the contrary, fully justified, by the 
facts which I have just stated as connected with the 
recent history of that party, in maintaining that the 
Administration party in this House have been perfectly 
sensible, from the commencement of this investigation 
that, no matter how deep the criminality of those im- 
plicated, they, as a party, would be forced to deny to 
the House any right or pozver ivhatever to punish it. 
To take any other ground would, in them, be so 
flagrantly and scandalously repugnant to their former 
doctrines and action, as to expose them to imputations 
which the most abandoned prostitution might desire to 
avoid. I repeat, therefore, that the direct assertion 
or exercise of such a pozver, by that party, zuas at no 
time intended. 

This view, sir, of the position of that party, in 
regard to the power in question, will at once explain 
the otherwise incomprehensible form of these resolu- 
tions; why they are indefinite and general, and in that 
respect, contrary to the established usage and express 



IN CONGRESS 



179 



law of the House. For, sir, if they had been direct 
and specific, meditating, in terms, an exercise of the 
power which I have stated, they must have been in-. 
stantly rejected by the House; certainly rejected if the 
sentiments of that party could have prevailed. Many 
of the party whose names are recorded in support of 
the doctrines which 1 have imputed to them, are now 
members of the House, gentlemen liigh in station and 
influence, all favoring these proceedings ! This 
general and indirect form of proceeding was accord- 
ingly adopted to escape an assertion of the pozver; 
for to have instituted proceedings expressly aiming 
at punisluiient would necessarily have presupposed the 
right and power to inflict it, and all this for what? 

With the intention, sir, of seizing the occasion which 
it was supposed the death of one gentleman in a duel 
with another who happened to be a political opponent 
afforded, of diverting public attention for a season 
from the wretched condition of public affairs, and of 
effecting this under color of devotion to religion and 
law ! To lend themselves to a proceeding to which they 
sought, by its generality, to give the appearance of a 
criminal procedure, without daring in terms, to give it 
that shape! With a view to investigations, reports, 
and accusations, against distinguished members of the 
opposition, with a perfect knowledge all along that the 
proceedings zvould be arrested, and arrested by that 
party, the moment the work of accusation was done! 
To the extent of accusation they could readily go. to 
attain a party end ; to hear, to try, was no part of their 
purpose; to punisli, under their interpretation, was no 
part of their pozver. 

How far the country will be disposed to countenance 
this deliberate prostitution of the action and time of 
the House, for such purposes cannot, I think, be diffi- 
cult to anticipate. 

Any opinion, sir, which I may entertain with re- 
spect to the extent of the privileges of the House, or its 
powers to punish violations of them, need not be now 



l8o RICHARD HICKMAN MENES'EE) 

expressed, as it is not demanded by the immediate 
question. That those in opposition should hold, as 
a party, that the pozver of the House was fully 
adequate to any measure of punishment demanded by 
them even in which these proceedings originated would 
be altogether natural and consistent. They had so 
held on former occasions when political adversaries 
were implicated ; their opinion is unaltered, their con- 
duct is unaltered, though political friends may be im- 
plicated. I honor a constancy which contrasts so 
strikingly. 

If any doubts, sir. could have remained respecting 
the irregularity of this report, and the necessity of its 
recommitment, they must have been wholly removed 
by the extraordinary disclosure made, after a week's 
discussion, by the chairman of the committee. In an- 
swer to a question propounded by a gentleman from 
Virginia, (Mr. Wise) the chairman confessed, to the 
amazement, doubtless, of all who heard him, that the 
report had under c^one alterations after it had been last 
seen by those whose act it purports to be ! He states, 
however, that the alterations, he thought, did not 
materially vary the sense; that they were, for the 
most part, but critical alterations ! 

Sir, with respect to that report, ''honor was the 
subject of its story." It impugns, deeply, the honor 
of gentlemen: an honor before spotless. Its texture 
is too delicate for such a touch for even the chairman 
of this committee. The utter impropriety of altering 
a report, to any extent or for any purpose, in such a 
case as this, must be manifest to all who duly estimate 
the value of honor or the delicacy of sitting, as this 
committee have assumed to do. in judgment upon its 
laws. This the chairman should have known. 

" 'Who governs freemen should himself be free.' " 

The principle applies with even more truth to him 
who would pass judgment on honorable men. 



IN CONGRESS 



i8i 



It is suggested, sir, that the report zvas softened by 
the alterations. That does not at all palliate the out- 
rage. If the merits of this report shall ever become 
(which they will not) the subject of review here, it will 
be demonstrable that an alteration by which its vio- 
lence was mitigated is more prejudicial to the accused 
than one aggravating it. From audacious, monstrous 
injustice, innocence has nothing to fear ; it defeats, by 
its enormity, its own purpose. It is dangerous only 
when it becomes plausible, when, though not the truth, 
it is made to resemble it. So with this report. 

But, sir, if the House were amazed by the annuncia- 
tion that an alteration of the report had been perpe- 
trated, it must have been astounded by the declaration 
which accompanied it. The chairman proceeded, on 
the occasion referred to, with the utmost complacency, 
to disclose that the report had not been agreed to or 
even seen by a majority in actual committee, but had 
been privately exhibited, and privately acquiesced in ! 
Upon this I pass no judgment of my own; I deliver it 
over to the rebuke and condemnation of a law of this 
House, too solemn to require enforcement, and too 
explicit for comment. 

"A committee meet when and where they please, if 
the House has not ordered time and place for them. 
But they can only act zvhen together, and not by sep- 
arate consultation and consent, nothing being the 
report of the committee but what has been agreed to in 
committee actually assembled." 

You, sir, might have protected the House against an 
irregularity like this, by announcing, on the instant 
that the fact was stated by the chairman, as your duty 
clearly was, that the paper thus presented as a report 
was, in point of Parliamentaiy law, no report ; that it 
was an unauthorized private writing, thrust, irrespon- 
sibly, upon the House; and that the only regular 
course was, as a matter of order, at once to reject it. 
Why was this not done ? 



1 82 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^SE 

Will the applicability of this law, too, be contro- 
verted? Or will an exposition of the principles on 
which it rests be required? Sir, it seems as if law, 
standing by itself, and upon its own authority is of no 
consideration, vierely as lazv, with certain philosophic 
jurists of this House. The principles, however, of 
the law in question are neither obscure nor difficult of 
exposition. The rule results necessarily from the 
nature of legislative committees, which are organised 
official bodies, with their peculiar privileges, powers, 
and duties, as such. To the extent of their functions 
they are as essentially organized and official as the 
House of Representatives itself. In every parlia- 
mentary view it would be as indispensable to obtain the 
consent of members of this House, separately and pri- 
vately, without entering this Hall, to the highest and 
most responsible acts of legislation, and ascribe to 
them the validity and effect of acts of the House, as 
to obtain the consent of a member of a committee, in 
the private and irresponsible manner stated by the 
chairman, and insist on it as the act of the committee. 
The amplest illustrations might be readily drawn from 
the judicial and other tribunals; but 1 will not suppose 
them to be required in a matter so palpable. 

Yet, sir, this interposition of the laws of the House 
between the committee and their purpose is sagely 
pronounced exception to form, technical, evasive of 
substantial justice! Sir, when you hear those whose 
province it is to ascertain and administer, the law as it 
is, pronounce its provisions to be formal, or technical, 
or evasive, and on that account to be disregarded, 
especially in a criminal procedure, you have the 
authority of history for pronouncing them either un- 
learned in the doctrines or faithless to the principles of 
freedom. This expression, I admit, is strong; but, sir, 
it is just. 

What is a free Constitution, what are laws, but 
the forms, the technicality, the evasion interposed 
between the weak and the powerful, between the tyrant 



IN CONGRESS 



183 



and his purpose? Sir, in the vocabulary of freedom, 
there is no justice, no right, no wrong, except as 
known to the Constitution and laws, just as they are. 
God forbid that there should be! The American 
Representative who, for the miserable party ends at 
which these proceedings aim, is unfortunate enough 
to entertain, much less publicly to utter, sentiments 
which this debate has elicited, is an object of real pity; 
he has mine. These sentiments originate in a region 
far, far below a just conception of the dignity of con- 
stitutional liberty; and there only, if anywhere, they 
are doomed to flourish; they perish by elevation. 

These proceedings, sir, are intrinsically important; 
they are infinitely more important as a precedent. 
The attempt to signaliae this case will, from that cause 
alone, attract the observation and the keenest scrutiny 
of our successors here and of posterity into the present 
action of the House. For one, I prepare to encounter 
that scrutiny, and to defy it; by firmly maintaining 
the just privileges and powers of the House, on the 
one hand, and maintaining with like firmness the laws 
of the House and of the land, and the principles and 
analogies of the Constitution, on the other; by recog- 
nizing the sentiment, that every public functionary 
and tribunal — the House of Representatives pre-emi- 
nently — should by their example, inculcate a spirit of 
respect for the laws — in substance, and form and 
throughout — as the only means, in a free country, of 
averting its precipitation into faction, violence, and 
disorganization. 

The question, sir, is no longer, "what the law is," 
for that is manifest. The question now is, "shall it be 
respected?" Sir, decide. 

On May 11, Menefee, from the Committee on 
Patents, reported, without amendment, Senate 
bills authorizing the issue of patents to cer- 



184 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^ES 

tain persons therein named; which was or- 
dered to a third reading on the following day. 
On May 12, G. W. Hopkins, of Virginia, in- 
troduced the following resolution: "Resolved, 
by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress As- 
sembled: That the Secretary of the Treasury 
be, and is hereby authorized to reissue to the 
amount of two billions of dollars. Treasury 
Notes, authorized by the act approved the 12th 
of October, 1837, under the restrictions, condi- 
tions and limitations therein prescribed." John 
Ouincy Adams, representative from Massa- 
chusetts, sixth President of the United States, 
wrote in his Diary' of this bill: "The Treas- 
ury Note Bill was resumed, and Underwood's 
amendment was debated by Hopkins, Wise, 
Underwood, McKay, Robertson, Legare, Pat- 
ton, Gushing, Foster, and Richard H. Menefee, 
a young man of great promise from Kentucky, 
successor to that oracle of judicial wisdom in 
the last Gongress, French. Menefee's Speech 
struck me as the strongest that has been made 
on this bill." Menefee replied to Representa- 
tive Rhett of South Garolina. He opposed the 
bill. Again Adams wrote in his Diary: 
''Menefee called R. Barnwell Rhett's speech 'a 
volcanic eruption,' and immediately answered 
him in his own style of blustering and de- 
fiance." 

MENEEEE'S speech on the treasury note BILIv^ 

Mr. Speaker: 

I do not rise to debate, now, the merits of the ques- 
tion before the House; but to relieve it on the first 



^Adams's Memoirs, edited by his son, Vol, 9, page 394. 
' Speech in Lexington Intelligencer, June 22, 1838. 



IN CONGRESS 



185 



instant, simply and in a few words, from the false posi- 
tion in which the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Rhett) has, in the speech just delivered, sought to 
place it. 

Sir, that was a most surprising speech, greatly 
deviating, I think, from the style of discussion which 
should be cultivated here. What does the gentleman 
mean? Does he mean menaced He must have so 
meant, or he meant nothing. Sir, before resorting to 
that expedient on an occasion like this, he should have 
remembered that it has been heretofore so freely and 
indiscriminately employed in the same quarter whence 
it now proceeds, that, though clothed in its accus- 
tomed thunder, it no longer inspires terror; scarcely 
excites notice. It is at length become a regular exhi- 
hition, which all expect, none regard. 

But, sir, whence this present volcanic eruption, 
whose flame and smoke so sublimely mingle with the 
thunder and lightning of this new manace? The 
cause that produces it is about as potent as the effect. 
What is it? 

The Government, sir, by a series of financial disas- 
ters, which popular opinion ascribes to a series of 
financial enormities perpetrated by the x\dministration, 
has at length reached a point requiring, in the opinion 
of the President, that he should inform the House 
(what it knew before) that the Treasury is in a deplor- 
able exigency, demanding the early adoption, of Con- 
gress, of measures for its relief, which he proceeds 
most pressingly to recommend. Well, sir, this House, 
whose peculiar province, under the Constitution, it is 
to originate measures of the kind, is satisfied that such 
exigency does exist; and, without distinction of par- 
ties, proclaims a readiness and determination to fur- 
nish the requisite supplies, and to proceed, at once, 
to the consideration of the most eligible manner of 
raising them. That they must be raised, in some 
manner, is admitted on all sides ; the most appropriate 



l86 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEl^EE 

manner of doing so is the only question. Out of the 
boundless field of expedients, a choice must be made. 

The Executive, sir, as it was his right to do, has 
recommended as most appropriate, the contraction of 
a public debt of ten millions of dollars. The House 
is likewise of opinion that a public debt is inevitable. 
The Executive, however, proposes what gentlemen 
please to denominate an indirect loan, in the form of 
an emission of Treasury notes. Gentlemen in the 
opposition suggest a direct loan, in the ordinary form. 
They resist the measures which the President pro- 
poses, on the ground that, in the view of the Constitu- 
tion, it is no loan; that the proposed notes are meant 
for circulation, are paper money, are bills of credit; 
that, in employing the credit of the Government to 
raise money. Congress is limited by the Constitution to 
"borrozi'ing" simply, no quality of which exists in the 
proposed issue, which is but the common instance of a 
creditor applying for payment, and the debtor for want 
of money, liquidating the debt on it; that it is an 
expedient by which nations may be overwhelmed with 
debt, and their credit subverted, by insidious advancing 
perceptible to the people ; that up to this period, it has 
never been tolerated in time of peace, but reserved, 
exclusively, for the calamities of war, when the Gov- 
ernment, unable to raise money by the Constitutional 
means of "borrozving/' was forced to the extremity of 
making it by the emission of paper, as is now contem- 
plated. For which, and other insurmountable objec- 
tions, they insist that the manner which the President 
recommends of raising supplies should not be resorted 
to. In all which, if I do not agree, I certainly perceive 
great force, fully demanding the maturest deliberation 
of the House. A plain man, I think, would discover 
nothing very objectionable in all this. But, sir, how 
does the gentleman from South Carolina regard it ? 

Why, sir, that gentleman looks not to those or any 
conceivable objections, deigns not to meet them, 
assumes by instinct that to liquidate a debt of note 
necessarily implies a borrowing, scorns deliberation, 



IN CONGRESS 



187 



oversteps all obstacles, hearkens to nothing, but leaps, 
right at once, by inspiration, thnnderclad, to the con- 
clusion that any party, or any man of any party, that 
dares to oppose a question the precise manner of rais- 
ing supplies recommended by the President, or to hesi- 
tate one instant, upon Constitution, or expediency, or 
other grounds, are faithless to their trusts, devotees of 
faction, and foes to the Government of their country ! 
That to decline to pass this bill, just as it is, and just 
now, would present an example of lawlessness by this 
House, unavoidably resulting in the immediate over- 
throw of the Government; in anarchy; in the exter- 
mination of all corporations, and the demolition, by 
the hand of violence, of the edifices — the marble pal- 
aces — which they inhabit! And all this to be accom- 
plished by the aroused loyalty of the nation ! 

Sir, is the dignity of this House best consulted by 
giving too much language and place amongst the 
habitual ravings of gentlemen, heard and forgotten? 
Or by giving vent to the vengeance which it seems to 
provoke? Sir, this language, proceeding from any 
quarter would be inadmissible. But, sir, for that gen- 
tleman to speak, and so to speak, of example of law- 
lessness; of attachment to the Constitution and laws; 
of faction; of infidelity to the Government; of loyalty, 
sir! Whose examples? Whose loyalty? Loyalty 
to what? Sir, within the memory of man, we have 
had examples of the respect due, and, sir, the respect 
paid to the Constitution and laws ! We have had ex- 
amples of the loyalty! They were memorable exam- 
ples. The nation remembers them, and will remem- 
ber. It remembers, sir, the part which the gentleman 
took in setting those examples. 

Examples! Loyalty! Why, sir, on a constitu- 
tional doubt incomparably weaker than that which 
exists against this measure, that gentleman, a few 
short years ago, showed himself not only willing that 
the Government should suffer embarrassment by an 
omission on his part to act, (the sin which he now im- 



l88 RICHARD HICKMAN M^ND^EK 

putes to Others) but ready and willing, and striving in 
open defiance of the laws, and in willing subversion of 
the Constitution, to dissolve, with an eternal dissolu- 
tion by violence and in blood, the priceless union itself!, 
Are these the examples ; is this the loyalty, whose imi- 
tation is invoked? I know of no others with which 
the Gentleman is so closely identified. 

"The Government zvill stop!" exclaims the gentle- 
man. Does he think so? I would be quite sorry if it 
did stop. Why should it stop? Who will stop it? 
Supplies, I understand, is all that is wanting. The 
House on all sides, proposes to grant supplies to the 
full extent required. Still the Government zvill stop! 
Perliaps, sir, we are to understand from the Executive 
by authority, though the gentleman who present loy- 
alty to his new ally, the Executive, so far exceeds his 
former loyalty to the union, that the Government will 
stop unless the House shall not only grant the requi- 
site supplies, and grant them in the precise form 
recommended; that the President, when he recom- 
mends a form, means to prescribe it ; that the exhibits 
is measures as his idtimatum, on the rejection of which 
he will stop the Government. The gentleman, sir, in 
his speech has freely employed the word dare. It is 
bold and expressive. I have use for such a word, and 
will use that. Sir, let the Executive dare to stop this 
Government for such a cause! Let him dare to pre- 
scribe to the Representatives of the people a form of 
supplies, in which, to the exclusion of all other forms, 
he shall persist, against their will, at the hazard of 
stopping the Government Let him dare to transcend 
his appropriate sphere to seize or attempt to seize from 
this House the inestimable right, and its undoubted 
prerogative of raising supplies in the form of which he 
shall judge most agreeable to the people! The Gentle- 
man talks of issues. Let the Executive dare to make 
that issue! If, under the impulse of a new infatuation, 
or of an audacity inspired by his late alliance, the 
Executive shall dare to stop the Government, on such 



IN CONGRESS 



189 



an issue, I am prepared for it! Let it come! Its 
decision by the people will not be doubted. 

That the nation, sir, may be spared the display by 
the Executive of such "Deeds of daring/' my loyalty 
leads me most devoutly to hope. I would devolve 
somewhere, a responsibility, not great only, but awful ; 
a responsibility resting, in my opinion, in undivided 
force, and solely on the Executive, and those who 
second his councils. Sir, the Executive and these 
councils already sustain a volume of popular reproba- 
tion which bends them almost to the earth. Let them 
not, by a measure so monstrous as that indicated, 
augment the pressure which now overwhelms them. 
They should be content to drag quietly to a close, now 
not distant, an Administration which promises no 
good to the country, and is too imbecile and crippled to 
threaten further harm ; without kindling, by fresh 
outrage, a fever of real loyalty; which, though not 
leading to the violent demolition or conflagration of 
corporation or other edifices, might entail upon a pros- 
trate and expiring Administration pangs which might 
be well escaped. The fruits of the works so disas- 
trously begun are bitter enough already, as well to the 
actors as the sufferers. Sir, the succession of wrongs 
by the Administration, and resulting distresses 
amongst the people, require no such "crowning mercy" 
as this. 

''Your party ivill he prostrated!" threatens the gen- 
tleman. Sir. that party of my connection with which 
I am not altogether free from pride, is a powerful 
party, rapidly growing, talented in its composition, in 
its principles, right. But by whom is it to be pros- 
trated? For what? Because, in this emergency, 
looking steadfastly to its duty and responsibility to the 
people, it plants itself on the most impregnable ram- 
part of the Constitution — the supply granting power; 
and, defying the Executive, firmly upholds, and de- 
fends that power in its full vigor and dimensions. 
Because it will not surrender that power, on the first 



190 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE) 

summons of the Executive and its now confederates, at 
discretion, and without a blow! It can be nothing 
else. 

That party, sir, stakes its existence on the Constitu- 
tion and a sound, enlightened national policy, looking 
to the perpetuity of the nation. It means to stand 
upon them. But, sir, it is prepared to fall, if it but 
fall in their embrace. Its possible prostration, except 
in that form, is never calculated when it is required to 
act. The gentleman forgets of what party he speaks. 
He appeals to sentiments which belongs to another 
party, notorious of late. The question how "victory 
will enure," or defeat, is one asked by that party before 
it acts; not by that whose prostration is denounced. 
The nation will comprehend me; I trust the gentle- 
man does. 

Having thus, as I hope, sir, restored the question to 
its true position, my object in rising is accomplished. 

The House continued in session until a 
quarter past one o'clock Sunday morning. 

On May 18 the Senate bill to authorize the 
Commissioner of Patents to issue a patent to 
A. M. Perkins and J. H. Kyen was resumed, 
the question being on its third reading. The 
bill was discussed at great length by Menefee, 
Logan, Gushing, and Fletcher. After the dis- 
cussion A\^illiam Taylor of New York moved 
that the bill be recommitted to the Committee 
on Patents which reported it, with instructions 
to report the reasons on which the report was 
founded. The bill was finally passed. 

On Monday, the 21st of May, petitions and 
memorials were called for, in the order that the 
States and Territories were on the House roll. 
Menefee, Pope, and Murray presented a memo- 
rial or petition. 



IN CONGRESS 



191 



On the 25th the House received by the hands 
of President Van Buren's private secretary, 
Abraham Van Buren, the report of the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, Levi Woodbury, in 
answer to a request of Van Buren to look into 
some extract from a New York newspaper, re- 
lating to the manner in which foreign papers 
were admitted into this country. Secretary 
Woodbury replied that his department had 
been engaged in collecting information on that 
subject for the past two years; that these ex- 
tracts, with others of like character, were 
placed on file in the Secretary's office without 
very much attention being paid to them. 
Woodbury did not notice that these extracts 
contained any personal reflection on the char- 
acter of the President, nor did he know any- 
thing about the connection of these reflections. 
These papers had been submitted to the House, 
but Woodbury said that if he had noticed the 
reflections they would not have been communi- 
cated. Van Buren asked the House to with- 
draw these extracts. 

After many members had commented on the 
extracts being brought before the House, 
IMenefee arose and commented on the doctrine 
maintained by the last administration, that the 
President was responsible for tiie acts of his 
secretaries, and said that he must, upon that 
doctrine, be held responsible for this transac- 
tion. He was opposed to having the papers 
withdrawn from the records. He wished to 
have them stand. They would not go against 
the President, for it appeared that as soon as 
the President became aw^are of their character, 
he took the earliest opportunity to disapprove 



192 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEE'KE 

them. The Secretary, he would neither ex- 
cuse nor condemn at present, but he would de- 
sire that the record should stand complete, as, 
in one form or another, they would furnish 
proper ground for examination, if not for cen- 
sure. 

Finally, by an affirmative vote of 102, the 
noes were not counted, the original papers 
were ordered to be returned to the President. 

On May 30, S. S. Prentiss took his seat as a 
member of the 25th Congress. 

June 11, being "resolution day," Menefee 
offered the following resolution: "Resolved, 
That the President be requested to communi- 
cate to this House such information as 
he may possess relating to the alleged at- 
tack on the American steamboat Telegraph, 
in the British waters, and to the al- 
leged destruction of the British steamboat 
Sir Robert Peel, in the American waters; what 
measures, if any, have been adopted in 
consequence thereof; and, if not incom- 
patible with the public interest, such cor- 
respondence, if any, as may have occur- 
red betwen this Government and the British 
minister or Canadian authorities in relation 
thereto; and any information possessed by 
him concerning the concentration and move- 
ments of foreign troops on the northern or 
northeastern frontiers of the United States." 

On June 14 the "bill to grant pre-emption 
rights to settlers on the public lands" was then 
taken up. This bill had been introduced some 
days previous. At the evening session of this 
day Mr. Underwood of Kentucky introduced a 
resolution suggesting that this bill be recom- 



IN CONGRESS 



193 



mitted with certain instructions. His motion 
was warmly attacked and Mr. Sanson Mason 
of Ohio asked Mr. Underwood to withdraw his 
motion, which he decHned to do. 

Menefee then went at length into an argu- 
ment against a prospective system of pre-emp- 
tion rights, which he called a system of plun- 
der to the injury and wrong of the old States, 
unless it could be properly restricted and 
guarded. His argument was generally in favor 
of the principle of Henry Clay's land bill. 

Ratliffe Boon, of Indiana, replied to Mene- 
fee and said that he was not aware that the 
subject before the House was Menefee's 
speech, but Underwood's proposition. Mr. 
Boon stated that he had always been opposed 
to Clay's land bill, so he was, of course, op- 
posed to Menefee's speech. 

When the vote on Underwood's proposition 
was taken, it was defeated by the vote of 123 to 
79. All of the Kentucky representatives except 
John Pope and Sherrod Williams voted for 
their colleague's proposition. 

The original pre-emption bill was finally 
passed and the House adjourned at a quarter 
past nine o'clock. 

At the evening session of Saturday, June 16, 
the bill for the better security of the lives of 
passengers on board vessels propelled in whole 
or in part by steam, was taken up. Several 
amendments were offered to this bill and some 
of the members were not sure that Congress 
had anything to do with this kind of naviga- 
tion, ^lenefee cited the opinion of Chief Jus- 
tice John Marshall in the celebrated case of 



194 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEl^:^^ 

Ogden vs. Gibbons, in support of those gen- 
eral views of the power of Congress over navi- 
gation, as an incident to commerce,^ in which 
Marshall asserted the great constitutional 
doctrine of the power of the General Govern- 
ment to regulate commerce, and held that tlie 
word "commerce" in the Constitution compre- 
hends "navigation." He also defended and 
sustained the applicability of this opinion of 
Justice Marshall in this case, to the question 
under consideration. The young Kentuckian 
was quoting the foremost constitutional lawyer 
that America has produced and the bill was 
finally passed. 

On June 25 Menefee offered the follow- 
ing resolution, which was read: "Resolved, 
by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress As- 
sembled, That in compliance with the joint reso- 
lutions of the legislature of Kentucky of Febru- 
ary 16, 1838, the President of the United States 
be, and he is hereby, directed to cause proper 
examination to be made by competent officers, 
of the town of Greenupsburg, and of the most 
important locks and dams now being erected 
on the Kentucky, Licking, and Green Rivers, 
with a view to the selection of a site for the 
contemplated national foundry on the western 
waters; the location of which is hereby post- 
poned until said examinations shall have been 
made." 

Mr. David Peterkin of Pennsylvania thought 
Menefee's motion was a good one and moved 
to amend the resolution by adding at the end 
of it, the following: "Also to examine the 

' Wheaton's 6, i. 



IN CONGRESS 



195 



waters of the Susquehanna River for the same 
purpose." Menefee asked Peterkin to make 
his motion more definite, and to confine the 
survey to some particular point on the river. 
Peterkin replied that it v^as his purpose to have 
a general survey of that river, and he could 
not consent to modify his amendment to meet 
Menefee's wishes. The House then took its 
usual recess until half past three o'clock. 

On July 3 the House resumed the considera- 
tion of the Senate bill "to modify the last clause 
of the 5th section of the deposit act of June 
23, 1836, and for other purposes." George N. 
Briggs of Massachusetts moved that it be read 
at large. After the reading C. C. Cumbreling 
of New York explained its provisions and the 
necessity of the measure, called for by the ex- 
isting circumstances of the State banks con- 
flicting with the imperative restrictions of the 
deposit act of 1836. 

Menefee replied to Cumbreling and quoted 
Mr. Wright's report to prove that the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury had the power to desig- 
nate other depositories than those which had 
already been employed, in which opinion Mene- 
fee expressed his own concurrence, and went 
on at length to oppose the bill; the effect of 
which, he insisted, was to put the whole 
finances of the country within the arbitrary 
control of the Executive. After many correc- 
tions the amendment passed. 

The first regular session of the 25th Con- 
gress adjourned July 9, 1838. Tt was one of 
the longest sessions of Congress that has ever 
been held. 



CHAPTER VI 

WEBSTER AND MENE^EE 

Although physically worn out by the long 
session, Menefee, with Wise and Prentiss, ac- 
cepted an invitation to address a great gather- 
ing of people at Havre de Grace, Maryland, a 
few days after Congress had adjourned. Wise 
made the first speech and he was followed by 
Menefee with " a brilliant speech," and Pren- 
tiss made the closing address. Prentiss began 
his speech with the wonderful words: "Fellow 
citizens : By the Father of Waters, at New Or- 
leans, I have said 'fellow citizens.' On the 
banks of the beautiful Ohio I have said 'fellow 
citizens.' Now I say 'fellow citizens,' and a 
thousand miles beyond this, north, I can say 
'fellow citizens.' "^ It was an initial note in a 
universal song of American brotherhood. 

From Maryland, Menefee, with Prentiss, 
went to Boston, Massachusetts, where on July 
24 he made the principal address at the great 
Faneuil Hall banquet in honor of Daniel Web- 
ster. Edward Everett was chairman of the 
meeting, and five thousand persons were in at-" 
tendance. Everett made the address of wel- 
come and he was followed by the guest of the 
meeting, Webster. S. S. Prentiss followed 
Webster, and then Menefee arose. It was the 
only time that the eloquent Kentuckian was 
ever in Boston, and then he was heard in the 
famous Faneuil Hall — the "Cradle of Ameri- 

^ Shields's Life of Prentiss 



WEBSTER AND MENEEEE 



197 



can Liberty." The Boston newspapers said 
Menefee was listened to with "joy." He 
responded to the toast "Kentucky." 

SPEECH ON KENTUCKY^ 

Mr. Chairman : 

I can not remain silent under the sentiment which 
has just been announced and so enthusiastically re- 
ceived. That sentiment relates not to myself but to 
Kentucky — dearer to me than self. Of Kentucky I 
have nothing to say. There she is. In her history, 
from the period when first penetrated by the white man 
as the dark and bloody ground, down to the present, 
she speaks. The character to which that history enti- 
tles her is before the world. She is proud of it. She 
is proud of the past ; she is proud of the present. 
And her pride is patriotic and just. As one of her 
sons, I ask to express in her name, the acknowledge- 
ments due to the complimentary notice you have taken 
of her, a notice not the less complimentary, from its 
association with the name of Massachusetts. 

There is much in the character and history of 
Massachusetts, which should bind her in the strongest 
bonds to Kentucky. Your sentiment places them 
together: just where they ought to be. Kentucky is 
willing to occupy the place you have assigned her. 
Without respect now to subordinate differences in past 
events, both States stand knit together by the highest 
and strongest motives by which States can be impelled. 
I mean the motive and purpose common to each of 
maintaining and upholding, in every extremity and 
to the very last, the Union of these States and the 
Constitution. Massachusetts has proclaimed over and 
over again her resolution not to survive them. Nor 
will Kentucky survive them. She has embarked her 
whole destiny — all she has and all she hopes for — in 
the Union and the Constitution. Let come what may 

' Speech in Boston Transcript for July 25, 1838. 



198 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFES 

of public calamity, of faction, of sectional seduction or 
intimidation, of evil in any form the most dreadful to 
man, Kentucky, like Massachusetts, regards the 
overthrow of the Union as more frightful than all. 
Kentucky acknowledges no justification for a disrup- 
tion of the Union, that is not a justification for revo- 
lution itself. In that Union, and under that Constitu- 
tion, Kentucky means to stand or fall. Kentucky 
stands by the Union in her living efforts ; she means 
to hold fast to it in her expiring groans. With Massa- 
chusetts she means to perish, if perish she must, with 
hands clenched, in death, upon the Union. 

God knows, our institutions have of late been suf- 
ficiently shocked to excite the just fears of us all. 
The very worst elements among us have been aroused 
into the most terrific activity. Much of the public 
virtue and intelligence of the country has been over- 
whelmed ; and those whose exalted qualities of intel- 
lect and of patriotism should have designated them as 
the fit agents of the people, in the administration of 
a free Constitution, have been left in obscurity and 
neglect and, in some degree, exiles in their own land. 
Wave after wave has dashed over the country in a 
succession too rapid almost to allow the Constitution, 
or even Liberty itself, to breathe. Nearly every in- 
terest violently assailed, nearly every institution struck 
at, nearly every principle, formerly held dear and 
sacred, disregarded and trampled upon, innovation 
and lawlessness dashing headlong over everything, 
under the terrific guidance of the presumptuous ignor- 
ance and prescriptive vengeance of our rulers; how 
could the enlightened friend of freedom fail to tremble 
for the country ? But the storm is over. The Genius 
of our liberty and institutions is erecting himself, and 
the first spectacle he beholds is the scattered and 
shivered fragments of the lately overwhelming power 
to which he had been forced temporarily to give place. 
And on will these fragments drift, inert and uncon- 
trolled — into the insignificance and utter annihilation, 



WEBSTER AND MENEEEE 



199 



to which they are tending, and from which no power, 
short of God's, can rescue them. As they float down 
to their inglorious destiny, they will be pursued till out 
of sight, by the strained eyes of a people, whose inju- 
ries and insults force them to exult in administering a 
long farewell of execration. 

In these dark hours Kentucky and Massachusetts 
stood together. They could not roll back the cloud. 
Yet all that man could do, they did. Of the part 
which Kentucky's most illustrious son took in that 
gloomy period, it does not become me to speak. 
His acts of that day are indelibly inscribed upon the 
hearts of his countrymen. They are safe. But of 
Massachusetts and of her illustrious champion in that 
conflict — your guest — I am free to speak. Of him I 
have a right to speak. In him, and in the like of him, 
I hold common property with yourselves. He is my 
fellow citizen as well as yours. He belongs to the 
whole country. If you glory in him and honor him, 
so do I. If you have seen him in the worst days of 
the Republic, planted upon the Constitution, and 
gloriously and triumphantly defending and vindicating 
it, so have I. If you have seen him dealing in showers 
his thunderbolts upon the foes of the Union — so have 
I. His fame and his services, and the fame and 
services of the illustrious associate to whom I have 
referred, like the high seas, do not admit of appropria- 
tion. They are yours, they are mine, and they are the 
nation's. In some sense they belong to mankind. I de- 
light no less than yourselves, in offering to your guest 
this tribute of admiration and gratitude, who for years 
has stood a massive, personified pillar of the Constitu- 
tion. But for his services in the exposition of the true 
principles of the Constitution, when they were first 
assaulted under the late administration, no man can 
foresee the disasters which might have befallen the 
Union, and with it the cause of liberty. The late 
President, then in possession, in fact, of absolute 
power, was notoriously arrayed against the principles 



200 RICHARD HICKMAN M^NKI^EIE) 

Upon which, alone, the Union could stand. He was 
the unreserved advocate of the doctrines which soon 
after ripened into the frightful fruit of nullification. 
And had he, with his vast power, stood firmly up for 
the consequences to which his own principles infallibly 
lead, and thrown himself into the scale against the 
Union, this beauteous and glorious confederacy might 
now exhibit a pile of magnificent ruins. But an influ- 
ence stronger than devotion to principles had in the 
meantime wrought upon him. The strongest element 
which his nature knew was elicited — his vengeance; 
and, falling back upon the broad track of constitutional 
truth which your illustrious guest had marked out and 
illuminated, he wreaked his vengeance upon an enemy 
by vindicating the Constitution. Impelled by iniquity 
to embrace a righteousness which another hand had 
provided. I said the storm was over and the country 
safe. I say so still. Much I know yet has to be done; 
but all that remains undone will follow, by necessity, 
from what has already transpired. The people have 
been deluded throughout the perilous career, which 
they have lately run, by the only instrument capable of 
deluding a people so free and enlightened. Every 
step that has been taken, has been under some striking 
appeal to the imagination of the country. The most 
alluring promises have been perpetually employed, and 
the most brilliant expectations excited. The nation 
has followed under a heedless satisfaction with the last 
and nearest object of delusion, without time, in the 
quick transition and succession of measures, to esti- 
mate or even to distinctly see the object of pursuit. 
Like a flashing meteor, the late President blinded his 
votaries by the intensity of unnatural light : they fol- 
lowed, they adored, but saw not. judged not. Few in 
history have acted upon that policy with success. He 
did with complete success. It was the vital principle 
of his power. It belonged to him only. It was per- 
sonal; and ahhough, to the reproach of the nation he 
has transmitted a succession, he has not transmitted to 



WEBSTER AND MENEFEE 



201 



the successor that qnah"ty. And the succession is 
broken for want of that quahty. When the upsliot of 
the elements of miscliief which the administration had 
condensed was exhibited in May, 1837, the want of 
that quahty was signally displayed. Instead of 
launching out, immediately on that event, into some 
still more striking promise, some intenser appeal to the 
public imagination, as his predecessor had uniformly 
done, the successor was panic-stricken and aghast. 
He hesitated and faltered. The impetuous career of 
popular delusion was arrested ; the flood which gave 
it life was withheld. They rubbed their light- 
oppressed eyes and saw. It was all that was requisite 
from the first. They reasoned — the administration 
was ruined — it and all its appendages. 

The nation is now substantially redeemed ; because 
that is aroused and free to act which must ensure its 
redemption. If "my illustrious predecessor" had 
been at the head of affairs when that catastrophe 
occurred, his letter, written shortly afterwards, con- 
nected with his past acts, leaves no doubt as to the 
stroke he would have made. He would have declared 
a war of extermination against all banks; he would 
have appealed to the worst passions and the worst 
classes; he would have infused into his operations 
that thunder and lightning which had been so often em- 
ployed to blind and astound ; and, if the exigency re- 
quired, would have insinuated, if not pul)licly pro- 
claimed, that the good work of reform could not be 
accomplished, except by the plunder of eight hundred 
banks and the five millions of capital — not a literal 
plunder but a plunder under the form of law, as se- 
ductive to his followers, and as terrific to the country. 
He would have buried the excitement caused by that 
suspension, by a still higher excitement — buried, if he 
could, the very liberties of his country. His nature 
would have driven him to that resort. 

From the conflict which might then have ensued, a 
merciful Providence has spared us. As public affairs 



202 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFKE 

now stand, the Executive is forced to obtain support to 
his measures by addressing the understanding of the 
people. That necessity is fatal. He is of course over- 
thrown. I pity him. What a spectacle! He is ex- 
pected by his adherents to wield the weapons of his 
predecessor — he can not lift them ! He is expected to 
wear his armor — the helmet alone enveloped him! 
And he staggers along — too insignificant for a mag- 
nanimous enemy's hostility — to the close of the most 
imbecile Administration which an American citizen 
has ever been required to acknowledge. Yes, the 
check that the Administration has sustained has over- 
thrown it. The exertions of the late session of Con- 
gress have largely contributed to the certainty of its 
overthrow. It has been smitten. The Hydra has 
been throttled against the walls of the Capitol. The 
people stand ready, ready — with searing irons in 
hand — to burn out the very inmost roots of the 
monster! The work is done! 

If the occasion allowed it, I should like to say some- 
thing of old Massachusetts. I should like to rekindle 
my own patriotism at her altars. Here — on this very 
spot — in this very hall — the sacred flame of revolu- 
tionary liberty first ascended. Here it has ever 
ascended. It has never been smothered — never 
dimmed. Perpetual — clear — holy! Behold its inspi- 
rations here in your midst! Wliere are the doctrines 
of the Union and the Constitution so incessantly in- 
culcated as here? Where are those doctrines so en- 
thusiastically adopted as here? The principles of the 
Union and the Constitution — for us another name for 
the principles of a liberty which can not survive their 
overthrow — will, in after ages, trace with delight their 
lineage through you. The blood of freedom is here 
pure. To be allied to it is to be ennobled. Massa- 
chusetts! Which of her multitude of virtues shall I 
commend ! How can I discriminate ! I will not 



WEBSTER AND MENEEEE 



203 



attempt it. I take her as she is and all together — I 
give — Old Massachusetts! God bless her! 

From Boston, Menefee returned to Ken- 
tucky, where he spent the remainder of the 
summer and autumn recuperating. 



CHAPTER VII 

IN CONGRESS (cONCI^UDEd) 

On Monday, December 3, 1838, the Senate 
was called to order by Hon. William R. King, 
of Alabama, President pro tempore, and the 
House was called to order by Speaker James K. 
Polk of Tennessee. 

Menefee began his last tern;; in the House, 

//^^ as he had begun his first anH~second terms, by 

■ presenting a memorial or petition. Five of the 

other Kentucky Representatives did the same. 

On December 28, 1838, Harry A. Wise, of 
Virginia, offered a motion to print twenty thou- 
sand copies extra of documents numbers 111 
and 297 of the second session of the 25th Con- 
gress. These documents dealt with public 
defaulters. Edward Curtis of New York asked 
Wise to modify his motion to include ten thou- 
sand extra copies of the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury's report in relation to the defalcation of 
Mr. Swartwood. Wise modified. John O. 
DeGroff, also of New York, suggested twenty 
thousand copies of this latter document, and 
Wise agreed. C. C. Cumbreling, of the same 
State, presumed that Wise wished to have the 
documents consist of five or six hundred pages, 
which he thought it was very doubtful whether 
any one would read. He hoped that they would 
be printed separately and again Wise agreed. 
Mr. Garland of Virginia had offered a proposi- 
tion asking that the Secretary of the Treasury 
report to the House the defalcation of collect- 



IN CONGRESS (concluded) 20$ 

ors and receivers of the public money that had 
occurred since October 1, 1837, the names of 
the defaulters, when and where they took 
place and what amount had been stolen. 

Wise accepted this modification and further 
modified Garland's motion by requesting that 
the Secretary of the Treasury report to the 
House all the correspondence touching- the de- 
falcations of receivers and collectors of public 
money since the Department furnished docu- 
ment 297. Evidently the gentleman from Vir- 
ginia was in a modifying mood on that day. 
Menefee arose and delivered the following 
speech, which is given in the Globe. S. S. Pren- 
tiss's reply to Menefee is so fine that it is also 
given here. 

On Motion to Reprint Documents (iii & 2^/) in 
Relation to Public Defaulters. (December 28th, 
1838.) 

Mr. Speaker: 

I am happy to witness such scenes as this in the 
House of Representatives. I can perceive a feverish 
anxiety in the party in power, which indicates that 
after all the enormities that have come to light, there 
are other and greater still behind. 

Hence the anxiety to stifle debate, and quench the 
light which was beginning to be shed on dark trans- 
actions long liidden from the public eye. After the 
proof has come of iniquity after iniquity, which had 
been plunged like avalanches from the heights of 
power into the pure lake of our republican institutions, 
now that liberty is looking to this House for help, 
now comes a solemn tirade in the Globe against wast- 
ing time in this most villainous debate, and an appeal 
to the liege subjects of the throne at once to put a stop 
to it; and, while such intimation came from the offi- 



206 RICHARD HICKMAN M^N^FEE 

cial organ, simultaneously there was an effort in the 
House to smother documentary light. It is vain to 
hope for longer concealment; the deeds of the party 
are rushing to the light with the resistless force of 
destiny. The petty excuses of economy will not 
answer the purpose; they have lost their charm; the 
public begin too well to understand the economy of the 
Administration. It might as well, at once, with arms 
crossed and hearts resigned, come up to that bar 
where the American people will pass on its deeds and 
award their due recompense. That people will em- 
body the iniquities of ten long years, and, placing them 
on the heads of the victims, will stretch the sacrificial 
knife, and. calling on Heaven, will make one great 
expiatory offering to the God of Liberty. 

I deny that the documents give a false statement in 
relation to defaulters ; they only stated what appeared 
on the record ; this is all they professed to do. and this 
is all they did. These commencing groans of detected 
guilt were as nothing ; they were mere whispers, yea. 
sweet sounds, in comparison to the outcries of national 
agony that will soon fill the air as the whole truth 
comes to view. Come it must. Let it affect this party 
or that party, things have reached a point at which 
concealment is any longer hopeless. Whether these 
defaults are or are not an argument against the sub- 
Treasury — let them be even the strongest argument in 
its favor — still the people must have the truth. The 
truth will go like a two-edged sword ; error must get 
out of the way, or be cut in twain. Away with this 
pitiful talk about the expense of printing a document! 
Let the people be no longer insulted by an open at- 
tempt to stifle the light and hide the truth from them. 
Have it they will, and have it all. 

Prentiss's reply 

Mr. Speaker: 

I am as well pleased as the gentleman (Menefee) 
who has just taken his seat at witnessing the sensa- 



IN CONGRESS (CONCIvUDEd) 20/ 

tion in certain parts of this House at every fresh haul 
of truth from the great deep of this Administration's 
secrets. 

The great oyster bed has not been disturbed for 
years, now, and I do not doubt that another grab wil' 
bring upon water larger and fatter oysters than any 
which have yet been opened. Yes, there are other fine 
fish below, which have not yet been hooked up or 
speared. I am for trying all ways to get at them, lines, 
nets, spears, harpoons ; any means and all means I am 
for trying, so that by some means the fish may be made 
to appear above water. I am happy to perceive, from 
some symptoms of compunction on the other side, that 
the party is not as yet "desperately wicked" ; they are 
not judicially hardened ; there is some little nucleus of 
moral principle, around which better feelings may yet 
cluster, so as to leave a hope that they may still be 
snatched as brands from the burning. I had begun to 
think that the skin of this Administration was like that 
of the rhinoceros, insensible to all attacks, and proof 
against the keenest dart ; but I begin to have a better 
hope. The Globe may admonish and warn and entreat, 
but it is in vain ; the Globe can not stop this debate on 
corruption. It will go on; the nation will hear it. 
Gentlemen do not like this word ''corruption"; but if 
I thought their ears were not callous, I would buy a 
starling, and have it taught to cry nothing but "cor- 
ruption!" I would find the Administration when it 
lay asleep, and in its ear would halloo "corruption! 
corruption! corruption!" I would not, according to 
the advice of the gentleman from New York over the 
way, (Mr. Cumberling.) have the anatomical dissec- 
tions confined to dead subjects; no, there are plenty 
of living ones whose imposthumes need the knife. I 
trust these documents will be published ; I want them 
for two purposes; first for lessons of morality, and 
then as models of the King's English. My friend, 
(Menefee) has said they would cut like a two-edged 
sword ; ay, like a three-tAged one. 



208 ' RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

On December 29, Speaker Polk laid before 
the House a communication from the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, in compliance with a 
resolution of the House of July 7, in respect to 
the donations of the public lands and the quan- 
tity surveyed, the plans for dividing it in its 
proceeds, the improvements most eligible in its 
present system of sale and with other matters 
of a character somewhat similar. 

William C. Johnson of Maryland moved that 
this document be laid on the table, and five 
thousand extra copies be printed. Zadok 
Casey of Illinois moved that the Speaker's re- 
port be referred to the Committee on Public 
Lands. To the printing Mr. Casey had no ob- 
jection. Menefee opposed Casey's motion on 
the ground that it was a subject that belonged 
to the States exclusively in their separate in- 
terests. 

After further discussion, Casey's motion was 
voted on and lost, 130 to 57. Menefee, with 
all the other Kentucky Representatives, except 
John L. Murray, voted against Casey's mo- 
tion. 

The report was then referred to a committee 
to be composedof one member from each State, 
as Menefee had desired, and five thousand 
extra copies were ordered to be printed. 

On Wednesday, January 2, 1839, Samuel 
Cushman of New Hampshire, asked leave of 
the House to make a statement in reference to 
the Secretary of the Treasury. Objection be- 
ing made, Mr. Cushman moved a suspension 
of the rules, assuring the House that he would 
not occupy two minutes. The rules were sus- 
pended and Mr. Cushman made the following 



IN CONGRESS (C0NCIvUDI:d) 209 

statement: That on IMonday last Henry A. 
Wise of Virginia offered a resolution propos- 
ing a select committee to investigate the con- 
duct of the Secretary of the Treasury, and to 
see if they can find sufficient evidence against 
him to impeach him, and this committee was to 
be chosen by ballot. Mr. Cushman then went 
on to say that the Secretary would welcome an 
investigation, and began to eulogize him. At 
this point Menefee called him to order. Mene- 
fee then stated that Cushman had asked leave 
to make a statement, and he was making an 
argument. Cushman replied to the gentleman 
from Kentucky, "I have done." Sargent S. 
Prentiss of Mississippi inquired if the gentle- 
man's argument was a subject of reply. This 
inquiry was greeted with cries of "Order, 
order!" Prentiss then asked leave to make a 
statement. Objection was made and Prentiss 
moved a suspension of the rules. The yeas and 
nays were then ordered and resulted in a tie — 
97 to 97 — Menefee voting for Prentiss. 

Wise then asked leave to ask the gentleman 
from New Hampshire whether or no his state- 
ment was made by the authority of the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury. Wise's request lost by 
one vote. The House then took up the reports 
from committees. 

On January 7 Menefee, with Chambers, 
Southgate, and Murray presented petitions. 

On the 9th the defalcation of Samuel Swart- 
wood, late collector of the New York port, came 
up for discussion. C. C. Cumbreling, of New 
York, had moved that the part of Van Buren's 
message that related to the defalcation of 
14 



210 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE^ 

Swartwood, except so much as relates to a 
modification of the revenue laws, be referred 
to a select committee. Wise had modified his 
amendment by accepting, as a modification, an 
amendment offered some time ago, by his col- 
league, James Garland. Garland's motion was 
as follows: "Resolved, That a select commit- 
tee be appointed, to consist of nine members, 
to be chosen by ballot, whose duty it shall be 
to inquire into the causes and extent of the late 
defalcations of the custom house at New York 
and other places, the length of time they have 
existed, the correctness of the returns which 
have been made by the collector, naval and 
other officers, and the deposit banks respect- 
ively; and all such acts connected with such 
defalcations as may be deemed material to de- 
velop their true character. And be it further 
resolved. That said committee be required to 
inquire into and make report of any defalca- 
tions among the collectors, receivers and dis- 
bursers of the public money, which may now 
exist; who are the defaulters, the amount of 
defalcation, the length of time they have ex- 
isted, and the causes which led to them; and 
that said committee have power to send for 
persons and papers." Menefee and John Rob- 
ertson of Virginia debated this resolution until 
a very late hour. The House then adjourned. 
On the next day the question of public defal- 
cation was again taken up. Wise had also 
asked in his resolutions that twenty thousand 
extra copies of documents numbers 297 and 13 
be printed. Arphaxod Loomis of New York 
had a motion before the House to amend 
Wise's resolution, by striking out document 



IN CONGRESS (concluded) 211 

297, and print document 13, the one relating to 
Swartwood. William J. Graves of Kentucky 
moved a call of the House, and on this motion 
Menefee demanded the yeas and nays, which 
being ordered, resulted 95 nays to 88 yeas. So 
the call was not ordered. 

The question then before the House was on 
agreeing with the amendment. Isaac H. Bron- 
son of New York demanded the yeas and nays, 
which were ordered, and the amendment was 
rejected by the vote of 112 to 89. Menefee 
voted against it. Further consideration of the 
public defalcation was cut off by the expiration 
of the morning hour. 

Monday, January 14, was "resolution day," 
and Menefee offered a resolution to the effect 
that the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions 
be instructed to inquire into the expediency of 
granting pensions to three Revolutionary sol- 
diers, and of increasing the pensions of four 
Revolutionary soldiers, all living in his con- 
gressional district in Kentucky. Menefee was 
doing for those old soldiers as he would have 
had one occupying his place do for his own 
father, a soldier of the war of 1812, if he had 
been living and needed assistance. 

On the next day the defalcation of Swart- 
wood again came up for discussion. The ques- 
tion now was to strike from the proposition 
that part of it proposing to raise the commit- 
tee by ballot and insert "z-iva voce." Hugh S. 
Legare of South Carolina addressed the House 
at length in opposition to the appointment of 
the committee by the chair. The debate was 
further continued by Menefee, Wise, and Pren- 
tiss, after which the House adjourned. 



212 RICHARD HICKMAN MENKl'EE 

On January 17 it was finally agreed to elect 
the committee to investigate the Swartwood 
defalcation by ballot instead of by "viva voce." 
Men like William C. Dawson of Georgia, 
Henry A. Wise of Virginia, and James Harlan 
of Kentucky were chosen to serve on this com- 
mittee. Menefee and Prentiss received only a 
few votes for places on the committee. 

On the following day Wise offered a resolu- 
tion to give the committee power to elect a 
clerk, to employ a printer to print for its own 
use its journal and other papers required to be 
copied for its members, and to also give the 
committee leave to go to New York or other 
places for the purpose of prosecuting its in- 
quiries, and that the members of the committee 
be excused from attendance upon the House, 
until it shall have made its report. 

Mr. Beatty of Pennsylvania and Charles G. 
Haynes of Georgia objected to this resolution. 
Wise then moved to suspend the rules, to allow 
of the motion being offered. The resolution 
was again read and then Beatty moved to ad- 
journ. Menefee demanded the yeas and nays, 
but withdrew the call. The motion was nega- 
tived without a count, and Wise's resolution 
w^as finally lost. 

On January 22 several committees made 
their reports and ]\Ienefee, from the Committee 
on Patents, reported, with an amendment, the 
Senate bill to renew the patent of Thomas 
Blanchard. The amendment was concurred in, 
and the bill ordered to a third reading. 

After some executive communications had 
been passed on, the graduation bill, "a bill to 
reduce and graduate the price of the public 



IN CONGRESS (CONCLUDED) 213 

lands," was taken up. Zadok Casey of Illinois 
moved to refer it to the Committee on Public 
Lands. Lewis Williams of North Carolina, 
"the father of the House," moved to refer it 
to the select committee of twenty-six on the 
public lands, and asked for the yeas and nays, 
which were ordered. Menefee made a few re- 
marks in favor of sending the bill to the select 
committee of twenty-six, as proposed by Mr. 
Williams. Casey followed Menefee and said 
he had not been able to hear all the remarks 
of the gentleman from Kentucky, but from the 
whole tenor of the debate it was obvious that 
the only object of the motion to refer this bill 
to the select committee was to defeat the pas- 
sage of the bill at this session. This was a 
measure of deep interest to the new States, and 
indeed to the whole western country. It was 
a subject that legitimately belonged to the 
Committee on Public Lands, one that had here- 
tofore received the attention of that committee, 
and if it was the intention of the House to act 
on the subject at this session, it should go to 
that committee. Casey spoke at great length, 
giving his reason why the bill should go to 
the Committee on Public Lands instead of the 
select committee. 

The debate was continued by Charles G. 
Haynes of Georgia and Joshua L. Martin of 
Alabama, who advocated Casey's motion, and 
Menefee, and John Robertson of Virginia, who 
advocated Williams's motion. The bill was 
finally tabled by the vote of 102 to 97, with 
Menefee voting affirmatively. On the next day 
an attempt was made to reconsider the mo- 



214 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEf"^^ 

tion to table the graduation bill, but without 
success. 

On motion of Menefee, the bill to authorize 
a renewal of the patent to Thomas Blanchard 
was taken up on its third reading. Millard 
Fillmore of New York, Benjamin C. Howard 
of Maryland, and Menefee, with several other 
Representatives, made some remarks on this 
motion. Howard then moved that the bill be 
postponed until Friday next, and then be 
printed. Menefee demanded the previous 
question. Ratliffe Boon of Indiana moved to 
lay the bill on the table, which was not agreed 
to. The demand of Menefee for the previous 
question was then seconded. The main ques- 
tion being on the passage of the bill, William 
Monts:omerv of North Carolina asked for the 
yeas and nays, which were ordered. The ques- 
tion was then taken and resulted — yeas 89, 
nays 72. So the bill was passed. 

On January 28 Menefee offered the follow- 
ing resolution : "Resolved, . That the Secretary 
of the Treasury be, and he is hereby directed 
to communicate to this House a statement of 
the sums respectively awarded, under the act of 
July 13th, 1832, for carrying into effect the 
convention with France of July 4th, 1831, in 
favor of persons from whom sums of money 
were due to the United States; the amounts 
to which they were respectively entitled under 
the ratable proportions provided for by said 
act; the amounts respectively paid to them; 
the amounts respectively entered to their 
credit by reason of the deductions provided for 
in said act; why, if the fact be so, said persons 
did not receive the full benefit of said act, either 



IN CONGRESS ( concluded) 215 

by payment or credits on their debts to the 
United States; whether an agent was em- 
ployed by the Treasury Department to ascer- 
tain the persons thus indebted, and if so, who 
he was, on what terms employed, and, if paid, 
to what amount, how, and by what authority: 
and whether all the facts necessary to enable 
the Secretary to make said deductions did not 
previously exist on the files of his department, 
and were not actually furnished for that pur- 
pose by an officer thereof under his direc- 
tion." 

On February 4, Underwood, Graves, and 
Menefee, Kentucky's leading Representatives 
in the 25th Congress, presented petitions. 

Ten days later, C. C. Cumbreling of New- 
York asked leave of the House to present and 
lay on the table a memorial from Collector 
Swartwood, complaining of the proceedings of 
the select committee on defalcations. Cries of 
"No! No!" greeted his request. Cumbreling 
replied, saying that he "must then move a sus- 
pension of the rules for it as a matter involving 
great injustice to the collector of New York, 
and I now ask for the yeas and nays." Mene- 
fee asked Cumbreling what the memorial was. 
Cumbreling replied to INIenefee, saying he 
would explain if the House would allow him to 
do so. Again cries of "No! No!" greeted the 
Representative from New York. Mark H. Sib- 
ley of New York intimated that he should pre- 
fer to have it read, as he wanted to know upon 
what he would be voting. Cumbreling replied 
to his colleague, and said that, with the consent 
of the House, he would make a brief statement 
of its contents Renewed cries of "No! No!" 



2l6 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

met his offer. Abraham P. Grant, also of New 
York, moved a suspension of the rules, so that 
Cumbreling might have leave to make the 
statement; but being included in the motion 
already made, he did not press his request. 
Menefee then desired to knov^ if this was a 
memorial from the collector of the port of 
New York protesting against the action of the 
select committee of the House. Cumbreling 
replied as follows: *'Not protesting, but 
merely stating his own case, and asking the 
House to take measures to prosecute the in- 
quiry in relation to a witness." Menefee be- 
gan to reply: "That is to say, Mr. Speaker," 
at which point his voice was completely 
drowned out by the loud cries of "Order!" 
and the Globe reporter heard nothing more that 
Menefee said — if he said anything more. John 
Chambers of Kentucky expressed a hope that 
the opposition to presenting the memorial 
would be withdrawn. The question on the 
suspension of the rules was then taken, and it 
was voted not to suspend them, by the vote of 
124 to 73, Menefee and Prentiss voting in the 
negative. 

On February 18 Cumbreling asked the 
House to take up the bill to extend the time of 
the act authorizing the issue of Treasury 
notes until May, and to issue the unissued bal- 
ance. Edward Stanley of North Carolina ob- 
jected. Menefee said that he should not op- 
pose this bill, but its necessity showed the fal- 
lacy of the report of the Secretary of the 
Treasury on the state of the finances. Sherrod 
Williams of Kentucky demanded the yeas and 



IN CONGRESS (CONCIvUDKd) 217 

nays upon the passage of the bill, which were 
ordered, and the bill was passed by a vote of 
102 to 88. 

George N. Briggs of Massachusetts moved 
that the title of the bill be so amended as to 
read, "an act to revise and extend," the act 
authorizing the issue of Treasury notes. On 
motion of John P. Kennedy of Maryland the 
House adjourned. 

On February 19 there appeared in the Globe 
Dr. Alexander Duncan's attack on Edward 
Stanley of North Carolina and William W. 
Southgate of Kentucky. 

On the 21st Sargent S. Prentiss of Missis- 
sippi introduced a resolution saying that if 
Duncan was the author of the attack on the 
two gentlemen that he ought to be expelled 
from the House. Clerk Garland then read the 
publication in the Globe of the 19th. Prentiss 
then commented on the article at length, and, 
when he had finished, Duncan arose and ad- 
mitted that he was the author of the attack. 
Prentiss was followed by Daniel Jenifer of 
Maryland, who thought as Prentiss did. Dun- 
can followed Jenifer and stated that his retort 
to Southgate and Stanley was warranted, as 
they had first attacked him. Joseph L. Tillin- 
ghast of Rhode Island moved that Prentiss's 
motion be tabled but it was lost by the vote of 
91 to 83. It was then that Menefee arose and 
delivered one of the most sarcastic speeches 
ever delivered in the National House^ — "The 
Denunciation of Duncan." 

^Speech in Baltimore Fainof of February 21,1839, reported 
by a Washington correspondent 



2l8 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^EE 

He at once began to roll out the sentiments of his 
most eloquent rebuke with a fervor and potency that 
I have never known surpassed. They made his pulse 
quiver with emotion. The effect on the victim him- 
self was most striking. He first seized a pen and 
began to take notes ; and then with a desperate effort 
looked up, and around at his chastiser — but another 
sweep of terrible words came upon him and his head 
sunk in dismay. Dante says somewhere, "Even in the 
wilderness the lion will tremble, if he hears the voice 
of the just man." Mr. Menefee realized this idea, 
though I have no notion of comparing Duncan to this 
noble moharch of the forest. Mr. Prentiss, in a sub- 
sequent part of the debate, was nearer the point when 
he said that his friend from Kentucky had stripped 
the lion's skin from the body of the ass! 

In the very first sentence Menefee placed Duncan 
forever beyond the pale of "honor." "We are told 
that the member considers himself amenable to the 
code of honor. Now I desire that that code shall not 
be polluted ; and I here say, in my place, that from 
first to last, in the whole business of this infamous 
production, there is not one single step the member has 
taken, in which he has not shown an entire destitution 
of the principles that regulate men who acknowledge 
the obligations and responsibilities of that code. This 
must be obvious to every man whose heart beats a 
single stroke to honor." 

Menefee then reviewed and commented on all the 
circumstances of this transaction as given by Duncan 
himself ; and especially dwelt on Duncan's declaration 
of the dire necessity that impelled the publication, and 
the admission that Messrs. Stanley and Southgate had 
insulted him. He spoke here most directly and point- 
edly. "Where was the gentleman's valor then? 
Where was his honor? Smarting under these indig- 
nities, as he acknowledges, from the members, why 
did he take in his hand the redress, which he says he 
expected them to take for his retort? He admits he 



IN CONGRESS (cONCIvUDEd) 219 

was inexpressibly grieved by these 'insults,' but in- 
stead of making the call of their authors, which after 
his professions and declarations and boastings, he 
would have made if he had had one single fibre of 
honor in his heart, he sits deliberately down, and col- 
lecting all the epithets of abuse, calumny, and vituper- 
ation, pours them out, in glorious vindication of his 
honor! And then he comes here boasting of this 
dignified act as the most glorious achievement of his 
life; and talking as if it restored him with all the 
insults and indignities still resting upon him unre- 
paid, to rank among men of honor — as if it made him 
again a peer." 

The eloquent Kentuckian pressed home upon Dun- 
can the fact that he had withheld his publication until 
the Anti-Duelling Bill passed, with such force, that he 
started up suddenly and attempted an explanation. 
He said the communication had been ready for two 
weeks. 

"Ready for two weeks and yet it never saw the light 
until the Anti-Duelling Bill became a law!" The 
retort was responded to with clapping of hands and 
other manifestations of applause in the galleries. 
The Speaker declared that if the disorder was repeated 
the galleries should be instantly cleared ; but the cries, 
"No! No!" were so general and loud that the point 
was not pressed, 

Duncan, who was still on the floor, intimated a de- 
sire to speak, and Menefee permitted him. He made 
a remark in which he applied his favorite words of 
"false and calumnious" to the allegation that he had 
wished to shield himself under the Anti-Duelling Bill. 

Mr. Menefee replied without the slightest hesita- 
tion — but with a coldness of disdain more effective 
than the strongest passion, "The day for vindicating 
honor by offsets and compromises to attacks from such 
a quarter, is gone ! The member from Ohio whenever 
the principles of honor rule, stands estopped, disfran- 
chised, self -immolated, crucified. The nail has been 



220 RICHARD HICKMAN MEJNEFEE 

driven by himself through his ozvn vitals. He has ex- 
hibited a signal instance of seeking redress by coolly 
and deliberately sitting down to concoct something 
more vituperative and abusive by way of answer than 
that with which he had been assailed." 

Never did detected meanness writhe so under the 
full gaze of upright and generous men, as now when 
Menefee presented, in detail, piece by piece, the whole 
of this individual's conduct toward Messrs. Southgate 
and Stanley. He was on the rack. At last in the 
very agony of his deep humiliation, he suddenly 
started to his feet and began to speak. This disor- 
derly interruption of the member on the floor was in- 
stantly met with such loud cries of order, that I could 
not distinguish his first words. 

Mr. Menefee, in a high piercing tone, exclaimed, 
"Let him go on," and took his seat. But the whole 
House was so impatient of the interruption, and prob- 
ably had already been so disgusted with the exhibition 
already made of impotent blustering, that Duncan 
could not be heard for a while. 

The Speaker asked Menefee whether he yielded the 
floor. Menefee assented. Duncan instantly em- 
ployed the occasion thus granted by the courtesy of his 
chastiser, to express some affected contempt for Men- 
efee, and then applied to him some such choice words 
as "puppy," "fake," et cetera, et cetera. The House 
was in an uproar immediately, the Speaker and many 
members calling loudly to order. 

Mr. Menefee rose. He appeared the coolest man in 
the whole body. The only sign of emotion was an in- 
tense paleness which I never saw on that masculine 
contenance before. A smile, playful, beautiful, 
brightened it all up for an instant ; but soon gave way 
to looks of the greatest haughtiness and scorn. Then 
came the sentiment with which a man of true honor 
and genuine courage must look down from his eleva- 
tion on vulgar and swaggering ribaldry. Fixing his 
eye on Duncan, he said, "There was a time" — the 



IN CONGRESS (concluded) 221 

Speaker here called out, "The gentleman from Ken- 
tucky must address the chair!" "How considerate is 
Mr. Polk to administer this relief: — The fact of a just 
and virtuous accuser is terrible to the wicked." Mr. 
Menefee turned to the chair: "Mr. Speaker, there 
ivas a time when if the gentleman from Ohio — I say 
the gentleman — I am a man of forms, Mr. Speaker: 
he will not think I am serious in thus designating 
him — when if he had uttered such language as has 
fallen from him in reference to me, it would have 
created a sensation here — yes, sir," continued Mr. 
Menefee, laying his hand on his breast — "it would 
have fallen like a thunderbolt among the sparks which 
honor emits! But, sir, how is the case nozuF Every 
imputation from such a quarter, sir, falls to the ground 
harmless stingless, pointless, an object of general 
loathing and disgust. From the moment after all his 
boastings and professions, he allowed an acknowl- 
edged insult to pass unredressed, his name was ex- 
punged from the scroll of honor, if indeed it was ever 
inscribed there!" 

This is, as well as I can recollect, the language Mr. 
Menefee used. But I can give you no idea of the 
manner, nor of the impression it produced on the 
House — on those who had clustered together in the 
aisle and passages near him and on the crowds in the 
galleries. 

This speech, in manuscript notes, taken in 
long hand by a person present in the House, 
is in the possession of the Menefee family. It 
is so mutilated and disconnected, however, that 
it could not be used in this book. 

After this terrible denunciation the debate 
was continued, as the House refused to table 
Prentiss's motion. Prentiss began the fight to 
expel Duncan, and, with the exception of 
Menefee, conducted it almost single handed. 



222 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

On the next day, on the motion of Sherrod 
WilHams of Kentucky, the whole Duncan af- 
fair was laid on the table by the vote of 117 to 
94, Menefee and Prentiss voting, of course, in 
the negative. 

On Friday, March 1, the Maine Boundary 
question came up for discussion. It was a dis- 
cussion between the State of Maine and the 
Province of New Brunswick over the north- 
eastern frontier. The United States did not 
understand that the territory in question 
should remain in Great Britain's jurisdiction 
until the final settlement of the boundary 
question. Both countries claimed that the 
question could be satisfactorily arranged by a 
friendly discussion. 

The House went into the committee of the 
whole on the state of the Union, with Levi 
Lincoln of Massachusetts in the chair. The 
title of the bill was: "A bill giving the Presi- 
dent of the United States additional powers for 
the defense of the United States in certain 
cases, against invasion, and for other pur- 
poses." 

Francis W. Pickens t)f South Carolina 
moved to strike out the second section of the 
bill, which gave the President power to raise 
twenty new regiments. John Robertson of 
Virginia suggested a modification of the first 
section, so as not to assume that Great Britain 
"set up a claim" to exclusive jurisdiction. 
Menefee wished the phraseology made so clear 
that the Executive should visit an occupation 
of this territory, either on the part of the gov- 
ernment of Great Britain, directing and acting 
on her own responsibility, or through her pro- 



IN CONGRESS (concluded) 223 

vincial authorities. Robert Craig of Virginia 
and Benjamin C. Howard of Maryland did not 
agree with the gentleman from Kentucky. At 
the evening session, Menefee, following Mil- 
lard Fillmore of New York, ''spoke with great 
earnestness on the necessity of vindicating the 
national honor." 

MENEEEE'S speech on The MAINE BOUNDARY QUES- 
TION^ 

Mr. Speaker: 

The debates on this question have been characterized 
by such ability and fullness of detail as to spare me 
the necessity of going at length into the particulars of 
the controversy between the two nations, or even into 
the main points on which the title of the United States 
to the territory in dispute is founded. I propose but 
to state the conclusions to which I have come respect- 
ing this controversy — conclusions drawn from an 
anxious and solemn consideration of all the informa- 
tion attainable through the protracted correspondence 
between the two nations, their debates in Parliament 
and Congress, or other sources within my reach, and 
to express my opinion upon the measures which the 
existing emergency demanded. That the whole terri- 
tory in dispute belonged rightfully to the United 
States, under the treaty of 1783, I do not for one in- 
stant hesitate with the utmost confidence to pronounce. 

It is demonstrable ; it has been already demon- 
strated. Nor, sir, do I hesitate, with equal confidence, 
to pronounce that the claim to that territory on the 
part of Great Britain is altogether unfounded, and 
attempted to be supported by arguments too untenable 
and frivolous, in my opinion, to comport with either 
the dignity or candor of a great nation. The right, 
therefore, being most manifestly with the United 
States, the party who contests it on the palpably un- 

^ Speech in Congressional Globe. 



224 RICHARD HICKMAN MHNEI^EE 

sufficient grounds assumed by Great Britain must be 
held answerable before the world for whatever evils so 
unfounded a pretension may tend to produce. All na- 
tions are tenacious of territory; and territorial dis- 
putes are, from their nature, more likely than almost 
any other to engender mutual irritation and exaspera- 
tion, in which both parties are liable to err. But the 
fault, and consequent responsibility for it all lie with 
the party which, by the assertion of an unjust claim, 
thus exposes both to such consequences. It is in this 
view only that I now consider the question of rigJit to 
the disputed territory, and not as furnishing a reason 
for the measures proposed now to be taken by the 
United States: for these measures flow from other 
reasons than those of conviction of the right, and of a 
fixed resolution to maintain it. They flow from an 
emergency which has lately arisen — new and peculiar. 
Great Britain, sir. claims exclusive jurisdiction over 
the disputed territory until the dispute shall have been 
settled. Such a claim, urged merely in negotiation, 
would. I think, be unreasonable enough. Assuming 
that the right is doubtful (which it is not), it is mani- 
fest that the claim merely as such, of one nation is en- 
titled to no higher respect than of another. It cannot 
be presumed, in advance of negotiation and adjust- 
ment, that the claim of either is superior. Independent 
Powers must, in this respect, be regarded as equals. 
To concede that the undivided pretensions of either 
shall be invested with a validity and force denied to 
the other, is to concede away, in some sense, an essen- 
tial attribute of sovereignty. Yet Great Britain, by 
her claim to exclusive jurisdiction over the subject of 
dispute until it shall have been adjusted, arrogates to 
herself, undoubtedly, this inadmissible superiority over 
the United States. Nor is the reasoning by which this 
claim is attempted to be maintained less objectionable 
than the claim itself: a reasoning founded on the as- 
sumption of the principle so humiliating to the United 
States, that their independence, nationality, territory, 
were derived from Great Britain by grant imparted by 



IN CONGRESS (concluded) 225 

the treaty of peace of 1783 ; and that, therefore, Great 
Britain is to be presumed to remain in possession un- 
til there has been a transfer in fact. Sir, the treaty 
of 1783 granted nothing- — neither independence, na- 
tionality, nor territory; that treaty but acknowledged 
them. For the foundation of all their inestimable 
rights, the United States point not to the treaty of 
peace, but to the glorious war of independence which 
preceded it — to occupation : and to the deeds of the 
noblest ancestry that ever bled in the cause of free- 
dom — to conquest. Sir, I repeat, Great Britain 
granted nothing; she but acknowledged and recog- 
nized what the United States themselves had accom- 
plished — without her and against her. 

This claim, therefore, to exclusive jurisdiction, un- 
til the termination of the controversy, if urged by 
Great Britain, on the general reasoning hitherto ad- 
vanced in its support, in the most unexceptionable 
form of negotiation, it would be the duty of this Gov- 
ernment, under every obligation of interest and honor, 
to repel. But, sir. Great Britain of late reposes her 
claim to exclusive jurisdiction upon another founda- 
tion, which, if existing as represented by her, exhibits 
it in an imposing if not irresistible light; which is 
that the United States, in the progress of the negotia- 
tion, had conceded, hy explicit agreement, the right 
now contended for. This alleged agreement is as- 
serted, in positive terms, both by the provincial author- 
ities of New Brunswick and the British Minister here. 
Sir, I (in common, I believe, with the whole country) 
was surprised, absolutely astounded, by this annuncia- 
tion, so confidently made, and from sources so re- 
spectable, of the existence of such an agreement. If 
this Government had so agreed, the nation was of 
course bound, in faith and honor, to respect the agree- 
ment, no matter how injurious to our interests or hu- 
miliating to our character. Sir, I cannot express the 
intensity of the solicitude I felt to hear the response 
15 



226 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

which our Government should make to this alleged 
agreement. Could it be possible that any Adminis- 
tration had been so unmindful of interest, and regard- 
less of honor, as to have made such a concession? 
This suspense was of short duration. I now rejoice, 
sir. profoundly, and with patriotic thankfulness (as 
doubtless the nation does too), over the prompt and 
unequivocal assurance of our Government that no such 
agreement does, or ever did, exist. The British Min- 
ister is respectfully but earnestly invited to point to 
the alleged agreement. He has failed to show it ; he 
cannot show it, nor can his Government. Sir, it does 
not exist, and we are left to hope that its existence 
has been urged under an unintentional misconception 
of the negotiations between the two Governments. 
Unsupported, therefore, by this pretended agreement, 
the claim of Great Britain to exclusive jurisdiction is 
thrown back upon the untenable and wholly inadmissi- 
ble reasoning in which it originated. 

But, sir, if the grounds which this Government has 
invariably assumed in resisting the claim by Great 
Britain to exclusive jurisdiction needed additional sup- 
port, it is furnished by an explicit understanding be- 
tw^een the two Governments that neither party should 
exert exclusive jurisdiction pending the negotiation, 
but should be confined to the portions of the territory 
in dispute, then in the possession and under the juris- 
diction of each, without the right to enlarge their then 
existing possession of jurisdiction in any respect what- 
ever. This understanding (unlike the agreement set 
up by the British functionaries) admits of being 
pointed to and shown. It has been shown. The cor- 
respondence shows it. Nor can its existence be con- 
tested. This understanding, by itself, arms the United 
States with an argument against the claim of Great 
Britain (if the question is to be submitted to the ar- 
bitrament of argument) entirely irresistible, so long 
as the existing understanding shall remain unre- 
scinded. 



IN CONGRESS (CONCI.UDED) 227 

But, sir, it appears that argument and negotiation 
are to be discontinued by Great Britain, and the more 
cogent instrumentality of arms to be substituted in 
the enforcement of this claim to exclusive jurisdiction. 
It is announced, officially and unconditionally, by the 
provincial authorities of New Brunswick that they 
have peremptory instructions from the British Govern- 
ment to enforce this claim by arms, if arms be neces- 
sary, and that those instructions shall, at all hazards, 
be executed, if the powers of the British arms in all 
the provinces are adequate to their execution. Sir, this 
new manifestation of purpose wholly alters the aspect 
of the controversy. It proposes to deprive the United 
States of the advantages which they obviously possess 
under an original view of the respective claims of the 
two nations, unaffected by any agreement or under- 
standing. It proposes to trample under foot an ex- 
plicit understanding, solemnly and formally recog- 
nized, forbidding the pretension now urged. It pro- 
poses, finally and worst, to withdraw the adjustment 
of his claim from the field of reason and negotiation, 
and to adjourn it over to the field of arms ! This, sir, is 
the new position which Great Britain has chosen to 
assume. It is altogether her act. She has a right to 
assume that or any other position she pleases with 
respect to this controversy; we cannot prevent that. 
The question now, sir, is, "How shall the United States 
meet this new position?" 

Mr. Speaker, I am fully sensible of the comparative 
insignificance of the territory in dispute. I have, I 
trust, duly weighed the deep calamities of war in any 
form, and especially between two nations as powerful 
and as closely connected in commercial and other rela- 
tions as Great Britain and the United States. I know 
that this nation is unprepared for war. I believe I 
have soberly weighed all the motives to peace; nor 
have the dangers to which war must ever expose in- 
stitutions like ours being unconsidered. All these 
things have been calmly and resolutely looked in the 



228 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

face; and, in the full view of them all, I stand in readi- 
ness to repel the pretensions of Great Britain by reason 
and negotiation — peaceably, if she is disposed to rea- 
son and negotiate peaceably; and in perfect readiness 
to repel her pretensions by arms, if ^he is disposed to 
compel us to that resort! Sir, if Great Britain persists 
in backing her pretensions by arms, but one alterna- 
tive is left us — dishonor or war; and, sir. dishonor 
the spirit of this nation will not endure. Choice of 
peace or war is with Great Britain. She will manifest 
her choice of war by persisting to execute the instruc- 
tions avowed by the provincial authorities. For, sir, 
to the peaceable execution of these instructions this 
country cannot submit and never will submit ; it is the 
price of its honor to submit. In such an event war is 
inevitable; on our part a righteous war, upon which 
the smiles of the God of battles may be confidently in- 
voked. If Great Britain wills war, let war come! 
This nation, armed in the righteousness of such a 
cause, has nothing to fear — all to expect. 

In the present posture of this controversy, sir, there 
is no occasion, nor is it proper to animadvert upon the 
course of our own Government for several years past, 
in the conduct of these negotiations. That unjustifia- 
ble delays have been submitted to, may probably be 
shown. False steps on minor points may have been 
occasionally taken to our prejudice. This would but 
afford cause of complaint by the nation against its own 
Government ; whilst at the same time, the position of 
Great Britain is rendered, by that cause, still more in- 
defensible. Nor would this be an appropriate occa- 
sion for arraying the wrongs — still unredressed — 
wdiich this country has suffered from Great Britain by 
encroachments on other portions of our territory, or 
the unatoned outrage upon our territory and the lives 
of our people in the affair of the Caroline. These are 
subiects which stand open for discussion on their own 
merits, and in the mode which becomes them. The 



IN CONGRESS (cONCI^UDEd) 229 

present emergency alone is now to be looked to, and 
provided for — by itself and for itself; and the meas- 
ures of legislation taken by Congress should regard 
the emergency in that light. I am happy, sir, that the 
Committee on Foreign Relations, to which these mo- 
mentous subjects were committed, have so regarded it. 
I agree with them generally in the reasoning of their 
report — entirely agree with them in its tone. 

With respect, sir, to the bill reported by the com- 
mittee, I regret that it is not, in my opinion, wholly 
free from objection. The second section, providing 
for so large a contingent augmentation of the regular 
force is, I think, unnecessary at the present moment. 
It confers vast discretionary powers upon the Presi- 
dent. Those powers may not be abused, it is true ; but 
it is no less true that they are liable to abuse, and may 
be abused. It is in seasons like this that free nations 
are most apt, in their efforts to guard against dangers 
from abroad, to forego their accustomed jealousy of 
power, by erecting precedents of discretion which 
plant the seeds of fatal dangers from within. I trust 
that the committee themselves, will, on reflection, per- 
ceive the inexpediency of this provision, and decline 
further to press it. Nor should I have recommended 
as the committee have done, a special embassy to Eng- 
land. I am not sure that the present posture of affairs 
is such as, in strict delicacy, to require or even war- 
rant it. Yet in the spirit of forbearance and peace 
which I hope may ever characterize the counsels of 
this country, I shall interpose no resistance to the 
measure, and shall be happy in the expectation that it, 
amongst other measures, may conduce to a speedy 
termination of this unfortunate controversy, peace- 
ably and honorably to both nations. 

I have but to add, sir, the expression of my unaf- 
fected and profound desire for peace ; and at the same 
time, my conviction, not less unaffected and profound, 
that the enforcement by arms of the late pretensions of 
Great Britain, as threatened by her provincial authori- 



230 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

ties, is incompatible with honorable peace. If Great 
Britain, in violation of our rights, in disregard of our 
own solemn engagements, shall precipitate a war, this 
nation, I believe, will, as one man, brace itself for the 
conflict. Other gentlemen better understand than I 
do the spirit existing in their respective sections of 
the Union. The nation has, in the history of the past, 
a guarantee that the region in which Kentucky is sit- 
uated will be found promptly obedient to tlie calls of 
the national honor. Satisfy them that peace is dis- 
honorable, and they are for war. They will not in- 
quire how much or how little territory is involved in 
the dispute, they will not surrender an inch, if it in- 
volves a sacrifice of the national honor. They will 
never consent to graduate honor by interest. They 
fought the battles of the country in the late war, from 
the Thames to the Balize, over questions wholly mari- 
time, in which they had no direct interest. Yet, sir, 
the national honor demanded that war; and maritime 
in its origin as it was, it found nowhere in the Union 
more ardent and steadfast votaries than were found a 
thousand miles in the interior. Sir, as they were 
prompt then, so they will be prompt now to vindicate 
to the utmost, and to the last extremity, the honor of 
the country. They will not now calculate, as in times 
past they never calculated, the sacrifices which such a 
contest may involve. They regard the maintenance of 
the national character and honor as paramount to all 
other considerations ; for they see in it the only means 
of enjoying, in security, any of the inestimable bless- 
ings which Heaven has plainly reserved for their coun- 
try. For this they deem no sacrifice too dear. Money, 
property, blood — count and measure it all — it is yours, 
freely — if the vindication of the national honor de- 
mands it! 

Francis W. Pickens of South Carolina re- 
plied to Menefee and said that national inter- 



IN CONGRESS (concluded) 23 1 

ests ought to be looked at as well as national 
honor. He deprecated war, and thought peace 
might be procured, but was prepared to go any 
length when war was inevitable. 

Prentiss replied to Pickens, defending Mene- 
fee's position, and "treated with ridicule the 
idea of looking at interest when honor was at 
stake." The debate was continued until mid- 
night, when it was decided to table it until the 
next morning. 

On March 2 the bill was passed, with the 
second section stricken out. 

On Sunday, March 3, in a few well-chosen 
words, Speaker Polk took leave of the House, 
and at ten o'clock adjourned it sine die. Thus 
ended the 25th Congress, and Menefee came 
back to Kentucky to meet Henry Clay, the 
dream of his boyhood, the ambition of his man- 
hood, and then to die. 



CHAPTER VIII 

RETURN TO KENTUCKY 

In the Maysville Bagle for INIarch 13 the edi- 
tor, Lewis Collins, the beginner of the greatest 
of Kentucky histories, noticed that on Satur- 
day, March 9, R. H. Menefee, in company with 
Clay, Crittenden, Chambers, and Hawes, 
reached Maysville, Kentucky, on their way 
back to their respective homes. All of them, 
with the exception of Clay, who was detained 
a day on account of illness, departed for their 
homes immediately, and Menefee, Crittenden, 
and Hawes reached Lexington on the same 
day. 

Menefee, with his wife, did not return to Mt. 
Sterling, but decided to live, in the future, in 
Lexington. They boarded with Mrs. Mene- 
fee's mother, Mrs. Matthew H. Jouett, at num- 
ber 46 East Main street. Matthew H. Jouett, 
the greatest of Kentucky artists, had died in 
1827, and had left his family very little money. 
His widow was compelled to keep boarders, 
and during the years of 1839 and 1840 she had 
as boarders Menefee and his wife, Oliver 
Frazer, the Kentucky artist who was to paint 
a picture of Menefee that has contributed 
toward his immortality, and his wife, and Col. 
William R. McKee, a gallant Mexican soldier, 
who fell at Buena Vista, and his wife. These 
three couples, Mrs. Frazer used to tell her 
daughter, formed "a delightful dinner party." 

On the 1st day of April, 1839, Menefee quali- 



RETURN TO KElNTUCKY 233 

fied as an attorney and counsellor at law, at 
the Fayette Circuit Court/ Judge Aaron K. 
Wooley was on the bench. 

As Menefee had been in politics for three 
years, and had received only one dollar and a 
half a day as a representative in the Kentucky 
House, and only five dollars per day in the 
National House, he had been able to save very 
little money, and now he was determined to 
practice law and increase his bank account. 
As a prominent Kentuckian has said, Menefee 
had learned how it pays to eschew politics and 
stay at home, and, although he was to be 
identified with Kentucky politics for the 
next year, he refused, as the Flemingsburg 
Kentuckian said, to make the race for the 26th 
Congress. "Mr. Menefee declines to run for a 
seat in the next Congress. This will certainly 
be a matter of no little regret to the whole 
country. During his term of service in the last 
Congress of the United States, Mr. Menefee 
has had but few equals and scarcely any super- 
iors in point of abihty. He has proven himself 
a statesman of the very first order and a Rep- 
resentative faithful to his constituency, and un- 
tiring in his efiforts to advance the best inter- 
ests of our common country. Considerations 
of a private nature are alleged as the reasons 
for declining a canvass at the ensuing elec- 
tion." 

Richard H. Menefee practiced law at the 
Fayette bar during the summer of 1839, and he 
built up a lucrative practice. During the 
months of June and July he had his profes- 
sional card in the Frankfort Commonwealth. 

^Record Book No. 26, in Fayette Circuit Clerk's Office. 



234 RICHARD HICKMAN MENKFEE 

It appeared at the top of the column, which was 
devoted to professional notices, and simply 
stated that he had resumed the practice of law, 
and would attend, besides the courts held in 
Lexington, the Court of Appeals, the Federal 
Court, and the Circuit Courts of Bourbon and 
Scott Counties. Below Menefee's card ap- 
peared such distinguished Kentuckians as John 
Calhoun and James Harlan, two of Menefee's 
colleagues in the 25th Congress, who, like 
Menefee, had given up politics for law. John J. 
Crittenden announced his intention of practic- 
ing during the summer, in Frankfort. Three 
men, who had been or were to be. Governors of 
Kentucky — William Owsley, James T. More- 
head and James F. Robinson, — also had their 
notices in the Common-d.'ealth, So it may be easily 
seen from the above list that Kentucky had 
lawyers in those days. 

On August 12, 1839, the Whig Central Com- 
mittee, composed of Benjamin W. Dudley, 
Gen. Leslie Combs, Harry L Bodley, Rich- 
ard Pindell, and Richard H. Menefee, which 
was appointed in 1838 at a meeting held in 
Frankfort, over which Governor Thomas Met- 
calfe had presided, published in the Kentucky 
newspapers an address to the Whigs of Ken- 
tucky, urging the appointment of delegates to 
the Whig National Convention which was to 
meet in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, December 
4, 1839, and to the Whig State Convention, 
which was to meet in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, 
in August of the same year. The committee 
urged "harmony and concert of action as in- 
dispensable conditions to the success of our 
cause, lying at the foundations of both." 



RETURN TO KENTUCKY 235 

The Harrodsburg State Whig Convention 
met in the old Baptist Church, August 26, 1839. 
Gen. LesHe Combs was appointed temporary 
chairman and he called the meeting to order. 
About four hundred delegates, representing 
fifty-nine Kentucky counties, were present. 
Governor Thomas Metcalfe was elected perma- 
nent chairman of the convention, and he ad- 
dressed the convention after the counties had 
been called. Fayette County sent eighteen 
delegates, among them Richard H. Menefee, 
Henry Clay, Jr., R. S. Todd, Robert Wickliffe, 
Jr., and Gen. Leslie Combs. From Woodford 
County, Thomas F. Marshall and William B. 
and George B. Kinkaid, and from Mercer 
County, James Harlan and John B. Thompson. 
These were the leading men of the conven- 
tion. 

The afternoon was taken up with various 
resolutions as to how they should proceed to 
nominate the gubernatorial candidates, and, 
after much discussion the convention ad- 
journed to meet the following morning at nine 
o'clock. 

The next day James Harlan nominated Rob- 
ert P. Letcher of Garrard County for Gover- 
nor, and O. G. Gates, Crittenden's law partner, 
nominated William Owsley of Franklin 
County. The vote resulted in forty-eight votes 
for Letcher and twenty-six for Owsley. 
Letcher was then declared to be the Whig 
candidate for Governor of Kentucky. John L. 
Helm of Hardin, Archibald Dixon of Hender- 
son, John F. Todd and J. R. Skiles of 
Warren, Manlius V. Thompson of Scott, 
and Robert S. Todd of Fayette were 



236 RICHARD HICKMAN MENDI^EE 

then nominated for Lieutenant-Governor. 
Menefee rose and said that he was desired by- 
Mr. R. S. Todd to express his thanks for the 
honor done him by the gentleman who had 
nominated him, but that he must ask him to 
withdraw his name from before the conven- 
tion. James Shelby of Fayette immediately 
arose and withdrew his name. Robert S. Todd 
had two daughters, one of whom married 
Abraham Lincoln and the other one married 
Ninian Edwards. After several ballots had 
been taken, Manlius V. Thompson of Scott 
was unanimously nominated for Lieutenant- 
Governor. Chairman Metcalfe then appointed 
a committee to inform Letcher and Thompson 
of their nomination. 

The delegations were ordered to select their 
presidential elector, and a committee of thir- 
teen, one from each Congressional district, was 
also appointed to select two delegates-at-large. 
The electors-at-large were Richard A. Buckner 
and James T. Morehead. The Fayette delega- 
tion chose Richard H. IMenefee as the presi- 
dential elector for the tenth congressional dis- 
trict. Two of Menefee's old congressional col- 
leagues, James Harlan and William W. South- 
gate, were chosen electors for their congres- 
sional districts. 

After the electors were chosen the conven- 
tion called on Thomas F. Marshall, William J. 
Graves and Richard H. Menefee to address 
them, "which they did in a most forcible and 
appropriate manner." 

A young man, who was afterward to become 
the most distinguished criminal lawyer that 

^ Lexington Intelligencer, September, 1839. 



RETURN TO KENTUCKY 237 

Kentucky has produced, heard Menefee de- 
liver his speech. To-day Capt. PhiHp B. 
Thompson of Harrodsburg, nearly ninety 
years of age, remembers INIenefee's speech. He 
told me some time ago that it was the greatest 
political speech he had ever heard. The only 
one he ever heard that was comparable to 
it was one that Henry Clay delivered when he 
was making his last race for the Presidency. 
He also told me that Henry Clay, Jr., reminded 
him more of Menefee than any other orator he 
ever heard. 

After passing resolutions of respect on the 
death of Governor James Clark, who had died 
on August 27, 1839, the convention adjourned, 
and Menefee returned to Lexington. 

On September 5 Lieutenant-Governor 
Charles A. Wickliffe, according to the Ken- 
tucky Constitution, took the oath as Governor 
of Kentucky. Clark died at a time when Ken- 
tucky needed a strong man in the executive 
chair, as she had never needed one before or 
since. The terrible financial panic, which was 
to continue for the next year or so, was at its 
very height. But Wickliffe probably did all in 
a Governor's power to give his people assist- 
ance. 

At a meeting of the Fayette County Whigs, 
held on October 14 to select a delegate to the 
Whig National Convention which met at Har- 
risburg, Pennsylvania, December 4, 1839, Gen. 
Leslie Combs was chosen to represent the tenth 
congressional district. Menefee had been 
away from home so much that he probably de- 
clined to go, or his health may have begun to 
cause him anxiety at this time. Governor 



238 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEF'EE 

James Barbour of Virginia was chosen presi- 
dent of the National Convention, and Governor 
Thomas IMetcalfe of Kentucky was chosen as 
one of the vice-presidents. Governor Barbour 
made an eloquent speech of acceptance, and in 
the following words stated the principles upon 
which the Whig party was founded: One 
presidential term, the integrity of the public 
servants, the safety of the public money, and 
the general good of the people. Surely a very 
good platform, we moderns will admit. 

On December 6 the committee appointed to 
vote on the candidates for President and Vice- 
President of the United States reported, 
through Governor John Owen of North Caro- 
lina, that 254 ballots had been cast and that 
William H. Harrison had 148, Henry Clay 90, 
and W^infield Scott 16. Harrison was then de- 
clared to be the convention's choice for Presi- 
dent. One of the delegates from Kentucky, 
Mr. Banks, assured the convention that "Ken- 
tucky loved the country more than she loves 
Clay," and that the State would give her elec- 
toral vote to Harrison. Gen. W^illiam Preston, 
also of Kentucky, arose and asked General 
Combs to read a letter from Clay, in which the 
"Commoner" urged union among Whigs and 
to disregard his position. He referred to Gen- 
eal Harrison in eulogistic terms. John Tyler 
was nominated for Vice-President without op- 
position. 

After passing a resolution asking the Whig 
3^oung men of the country to assemble in Balti- 
more in Alay, 1840, "for the purpose of ad- 
vancing the cause of sound principles," the con- 
vention adjourned without adopting a plat- 



RETURN TO KENTUCKY 239 

form. The Whigs had abandoned Henry Clay 
for the purpose of uniting the Anti-Masonic 
and other opposition elements, and had nomi- 
nated William H. Harrison of Ohio, who was 
to lead them to victory. 

On Saturday evening, January 11, 1840, the 
Whigs of Lexington held a meeting in the 
court-house, for the purpose of sounding the 
local Whigs on Harrison. Dr. Joseph D. 
Chinn was elected temporarv chairman, and 
Robert Wickliffe, Jr., D. M. Craig, and W. F. 
Taft were appointed as a committee to report 
proper officers for the meeting and suitable 
resolutions for its consideration. Air. Wick- 
liffe reported the nomination of James E. Davis 
for president and Richard H. Menefee as one 
of the vice-presidents, which was concurred in. 

Editorially, D. C. Wickliffe, editor of the 
Lexington Observer and Reporter, said that this 
meeting "was one of the largest and most en- 
thusiastic assemblies that ever took place in 
this city." He had announced the meeting in 
his paper that morning, and, although the 
weather was very inclement, men from all 
classes of society were present. This was al- 
ways the case when it became known that 
Richard H. Menefee was to speak. The court- 
room was crowded to its utmost capacity by 
6.30 o'clock. 

Wickliffe the younger addressed the meet- 
ing and painted a brilliant biographical sketch 
of Harrison, and concluded by an appeal to 
the Kentucky Whigs to support him. He 
was followed by Menefee, "who occupied the 
attention of the meeting for upward of an hour, 
in a masterly and eloquent exposition of the 



240 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFKE^ 

principles of the Whig party, and a review of 
the history of Van Buren's pohtical career. 
Mr. Menefee's manner in depicting the char- 
acter of Van Buren, his pohtical history and 
that of the clique by which he is surrounded, 
was remarkably happy, and created infinite, 
merriment among his audience." When Mene- 
fee had done it was announced that General 
Combs, the delegate to the National Conven- 
tion, was present, and he was called on for a 
speech, but he arose and said, as it was after 
ten o'clock, he would defer his remarks until 
the meeting on the 18th. 

The resolutions were then read and adopted. 
They condemned Van Buren, eulogized Clay, 
pledged Kentucky Whigism to Harrison, and 
appointed a committee to select delegates to 
the Whig young men's convention, which was 
to be held in Baltimore on the first Monday in 
May. The meeting then adjourned to meet 
one week later. 

Although the next day was Sunday, Menefee 
left, probably on horselDack, for his old home 
and birthplace, Owingsville, Kentucky, to take 
part in the second greatest law case in whch 
he was ever engaged. This was also to be his 
last visit to the place of his birth. 

Late in 1839 William S. Lane, a citizen of 
Bath County, had killed McClellan Ewing. 
Both men claimed an ore bank, and Ewing 
drove the men that Lane had working on it 
away. Lane took them back and killed Ewing. 
The case was tried at a special term of the 
Bath County Circuit Court. Thomas F. 
Marshall prosecuted Lane and Richard H. 
Menefee defended him. After a trial which 



RETURN TO KENTUCKY 24I 

lasted several days, the jury returned a ver- 
dict in favor of Menefee, acquitting Lane. 
There are old men in Bath County to-day who 
remember this legal battle, for such it was, be- 
tween the two great Kentucky orators and law- 
yers. Menefee was at his best and it was the 
last legal speech he was to deliver in the full 
bloom of his manhood. He returned to Lex- 
ington, and was probably present at the meet- 
ing of the Fayette County Whigs which was 
held in Lexington on the 18th of January. 

This meeting was held at noon for "the farm- 
ers of the county to add their voice to the gen- 
eral note of joy with which the land had been 
gladdened since the convention at Harris- 
burg." The meeting was addressed by Leslie 
Combs and Cassius M. Clay, two of Kentucky's 
delegates to the National Convention. The 
committee on resolutions upheld the resolu- 
tions of the Lexington Whigs with some 
amendments, which brought up a debate, and 
held the meeting until nightfall. Editor Wick- 
liffe warned the Whigs not to let there be any 
difference of opinion on essentials. 

On March 20, 1840, Menefee's third and last 
child was born, a daughter. He gave her his 
mother's name — Mary Lonsdale Menefee. 
This is the child that he mentions in his Diary 
as being anxious about her health. She was 
to survive him, however, for about six weeks, 
dying April 5, 1841. 

The great convention of Whig young men 
met at Baltimore on May 4, 1840, and 18,000 
delegates were in attendance. Clay, Webster, 
Wise, Preston, and Graves were present and 

i6 



242 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^KE 

addressed the young Whigs. The procession 
was one hour and a quarter passing a given 
point. This was the largest convention held in 
America up to that time. The celebration was 
marred, however, by the fact of a Whig mar- 
shal being killed by a Loco-Foco — a Demo- 
crat. Menefee, so far as I have been able to 
ascertain, was not a delegate from Kentucky 
to this convention. 

The Democratic Convention met in Balti- 
more the day after the Whig Convention and 
renominated Martin Van Buren for the Presi- 
dency, adopted a strict constructionist plat- 
form, and left the nomination of Vice-Presi- 
dent to be made by the various States. The 
Liberty Party had met in November, 1839, and 
nominated James G. Birney, a native Ken- 
tuckian, but then a citizen of New York, and 
Francis Lemoyne of Pennsylvania, for Presi- 
dent and Vice-President. Thus, with these 
parties in the field, the fight for the Presidency 
was on in earnest. 

On May 6, at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, a 
convention was held to unite the Kentucky 
Whigs for the gubernatorial and presidential 
elections.^ Five or six thousand persons were 
in attendance. A delegate from Christian 
County presented to the convention a flag, 
"the workmanship of his lady, representing 
the hero of Tippecanoe, receiving two of his 
comrades in arms in his log-cabin at North 
Bend, Indiana, with appropriate symbolic de- 
vices." 

On the following day a resolution was 

^ Frankfort Commonwealth, May 26, 1840, copied from Hop- 
kinsville Gazette. 



RETURN TO KHNTUCKY 243 

passed, which stated that the convention 
deemed it a duty which they owed to their con- 
stituents to declare the high estimation which 
they place upon the talents and political devo- 
tion and exertion displayed by General Combs, 
the Honorable R. H. Menefee, and Archibald 
Dixon, Esquire, in their attendance upon this 
convention, and their able discussion of the 
great political questions and matters at issue 
before the American people, and to tender 
them the thanks of this convention. 

"The Honorable R. H. Menefee being pres- 
ent at the adoption of this resolution, arose, 
and in a warm and appropriate manner re- 
sponded to the honor conferred upon him." 
There was a man present who heard this 
speech, and afterward described it to a news- 
paper correspondent. 

Old Uncle Spotswood Wilkinson, long a 
resident of this town, was said to have borne 
a very strong personal resemblance to General 
Jackson, and in disposition perhaps a greater 
similitude than in person. He was a man of 
very keen perception, well read, loved to talk, 
and was a fine conversationalist. Nothing de- 
lighted him more than to get a group of boys 
or young gentlemen together and rouse within 
them a spirit of healthy and enthusiastic am- 
bition, by reference to events in history or re- 
counting some of the observations of his own 
past life. AVe recollect to have been very much 
interested upon one occasion by an incident he 
related in the life of Richard H. Alenefee. 

It was in the memorable campaign of 1840. 
when Mr. Menefee, Sargent S. Prentiss, and 
Henry A. Wise were all members of Congress 



244 RICHARD HICKMAN Ml^NEI'E^E 

together, and were regarded as the great tri- 
umvirate of the House, as Mr. Clay, Webster, 
and Calhoun were of the Senate. A great 
barbecue and convention of Whigs had been 
called for at Hopkinsville, and it having been 
announced that Mr. Menefee would be there, 
determined that he would attend himself. The 
occasion was never forgotten. It remained 
fresh in his memory to his death, and in mak- 
ing mention of it always reported it as one of 
the grand pleasures of his life. Sure enough 
he found Mr. Menefee there. The day was 
auspicious and the crowd was immense. After 
a number of very fine speeches by Chas. S. 
Morehead, Philip P. Triplett, and Robt. A. 
Patterson, Mr. Menefee was conducted to the 
stand and introduced to the vast audience. He 
described him as pale, careworn, and percept- 
ibly exhausted by the immense labor of the ex- 
citing session of Congress through which he 
had just passed. But with eyes beaming with 
the inspiration of genius and a voice as mellow 
as the octaves of a flute, he was the very picture 
of an orator, and, like his great compeer, elec- 
trified every listener by his first utterance. He 
arraigned the administration of Mr. Van Buren 
with spirit and emphasis that recalled the bold 
utterances of Cicero against Cataline; and ex- 
hausted alike all the resources of satire, irony, 
sarcasm and pathos. Referring to the great 
ship of state as she rode majestically under the 
guidance of Whig masters over the waves of 
public opinion, he exhorted all to come aboard, 
and with inimitable aptitude of illustration re- 
lated the anecdote of Noah and the skeptic at 
the approach of the Deluge. As the story 



RETURN TO KENTUCKY 245 

goes, Noah requested the unbeHever to aid him 
in the construction of the ark, and promised 
him, as a reward for his labor, that he should 
be borne safely over the great waters that were 
destined to cover up all things. But he ridi- 
culed the wild prophecy and reproached him 
for his temerity. 

The scene changes ; the windows of Heaven 
were opened and the waters began to pour 
down. By and by, when the earth began to be 
covered up and our hero could no longer wan- 
der about dry shod, his courage began to give 
way and he asked to be taken aboard. Noah 
refused. He returned when the waters had 
increased to the depth of his waist and begged 
for passage. He was refused again. The rain 
continuing to pour and the waters still increas- 
ing, he found his way again to the doors of the 
ark through water up to his chin, and impor- 
tuned the great Captain to take him on board. 
Noah still refused. At last, when all vestige of 
the earth's surface was fast disappearing, find- 
ing a temporary resting-place on the highest 
mountains, as the ark majestically floated 
away in the dim distance he was seen for the 
last time calling with mournful importunities 
to Noah for assistance. 

By this time the audience was so completely 
carried away, and the acting of the orator was 
so perfectly inimitable when he tiptoed on the 
stand and directed his vision in imitation of 
the skeptic, beckoning and giving voice at the 
same time to the exclamation of "This way 
with your ark, Mr. Noah!" he says he saw 
five thousand people rise hurriedly from their 
seats at the same time, and turning completely 



246 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

round, gaze intently to see the approach of the 
vessel. 

Uncle Spott never forgot the impression 
here made, and discharging the debt of grati- 
tude as best he could for the pleasure this great 
effort had aft'orded him, at the birth of his next 
son he christened him Alenefee Wilkinson. 

After IMenefee's speech the convention 
recommended that Todd's and Drake's biog- 
raphy of Harrison be purchased and dis- 
tributed throughout the State, to inform the 
AVhigs more specifically about their candidate, 
and then adjourned. 

The Frankfort Commonzvcalth for J\Iay 26 
copied from the Lexington Intelligencer an ac- 
count of a meeting that was held in George- 
town, Kentucky, to select a candidate for the 
legislature. 2^1enefee's old classmate, G. W. 
Johnson, was chosen. 

It was announced that IMenefee and Col. 
John W. Tibbotts, a Democrat, were present. 
Tibbotts arose and flayed the Whigs alive. 
But, as soon as he had finished, ^lenefee arose 
and was greeted with great applause. For 
nearly two hours he replied to Tibbotts's accu- 
sations, in a speech of which Editor Bryant 
said that, "for thrilling and impassioned elo- 
quence, biting sarcasm and keen satire, far sur- 
passed anything we ever heard before." 
Colonel Tibbotts turned as pale as Duncan 
had when Menefee denounced him in the Na- 
tional House of Representatives. Menefee re- 
futed every charge that Tibbotts made against 
Harrison, and Bryant ventured the assertion 
that he would never meet Menefee again. The 
meeting was one of Tibbotts's own choosing. 



RETURN TO KENTUCKY 247 

as Shadrach Penn, editor of the Louisville 
Advertiser, had dared ]\Ienefee, through his 
paper, to meet Tibbotts, and predicted if he 
ever did he would never do so again. But 
Menefee flayed Tibbotts just as George D. 
Prentice was flaying Penn nearly every day 
through the Journal. 

On Alonday, June 8, the Whig young men of 
Fayette held a meeting for the purpose of se- 
lecting delegates to the Harrodsburg, Ken- 
tucky, Convention, The meeting was ad- 
dressed in the "most eloquent manner by the 
Honorable R. H. ]\Ienefee"' and others. Reso- 
lutions were adopted setting forth the claims 
of Harrison, and the reasons why \'an Buren 
should not be supported. About one hundred 
and fifty delegates were appointed to represent 
the county at the Harrodsburg Convention 
which met on July 2, 1840. Menefee was ap- 
pointed as one of the delegates, and such dis- 
tinguished Kentuckians as Bryant, Combs, 
Wicklifl^e the Younger, and Richard Pindell 
were also appointed to accompany IMenefee. 

The Harrodsburg Convention met on July 2, 
and Thomas F. Marshall was elected as the 
presiding officer. It was addressed by the 
leading Whigs of Kentucky and did a great 
deal to advance the Whig cause in the State. 
This was the second and last time that Menefee 
was to visit the oldest town in Kentucky. 

All through the summer of 1840 a campaign 
was waged which, for enthusiasm, is un- 
equalled in American politics. Log-cabins and 
hard cider were the S3'mbolisms of the \\'higs 
and were displayed everywhere. "Tippecanoe 
and Tyler too" was the Whig war-cry. The 



248 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

political "stump-Speaker" first became promi- 
nent during this campaign. Whig barbecues 
were held in Kentucky during the summer at 
Cumberland Gap, Olympian Springs, and 
many other places. ^^lenefee was in the thick- 
est of the fight, speaking at every opportunity 
in favor of the Whig cause. 

On August 5 the Kentucky State election 
was held, and the Whig candidates, Letcher 
and Thompson, were elected over French and 
Helm, by large majorities. They were in- 
augurated at Frankfort on September 2, 1840. 
On his way to the capital, Letcher passed 
through Lexington, and was received by the 
local military company and escorted to Bren- 
nan's Hotel. Here, Alenefee, Combs, Wick- 
litle, and other distinguished Lexington Whigs 
called to see him and to tell him how they 
carried Fayette County by a majority of nearly 
a thousand votes. Richard H. ^lenefee cast 
his last gubernatorial vote for Robert P. 
Letcher, the sixteenth Kentucky Governor, and 
the first of the State's Executives to issue a 
Thanksgiving Proclamation. 

While ^^lenefee had taken a very active part 
in the campaign of 1840, he had also attended 
to his law practice. The Lexington bar at that 
time consisted of the ablest lawyers in Ken- 
tucky. Henry Clay was still practicing law, 
and besides him, lawyers like Judge Thomas 
M. Hickey, who was associated with Francis 
K. Hunt; Robert Nelson Wicklift'e, Jr., and 
Emilius K. Sayre, Richard Pindell, and Rich- 
ard A. Buckner, Judge Aaron K. Wooley, who 
practiced in connection with Robert N. Wick- 
lifife, Sr., and Larkin B. Smith. Menefee in 



RETURN TO KENTUCKY 249 

many cases was associated with Madison C. 
Johnson and Governor James F. Robinson. 
This array of legal talent has only been before 
the Lexington bar at one period of its history. 
Practically all of the law offices of that day 
were situated in the famous old street known 
as Jordan's Row. 

During 1839-1840 Menefee brought twenty 
suits in the Fayette Circuit Court for debts, 
and won all of them. He, of course, as his ad- 
vertisements in the Commomvealth stated, was 
practicing before other Kentucky courts. One 
of the most important suits for debt that he 
was engaged in was one against the law firm 
of Wickliffe & Sayre, which he brought for 
George Fry, who claimed $1,000. Menefee was 
assisted by Johnson and Robinson in this suit. 
He gained it, defeating two of his most emi- 
nent brother lawyers. He also brought suit 
and collected two notes amounting to nearly 
$2,300, against Vice-President Richard M. 
Johnson and David A. Sayre. These notes 
Menefee collected for Thomas C. Barnes. 
Menefee also drew up the contract transferring 
the famous old Kentucky newspaper, the 
Observer and Reporter, to David C. Wickliffe 
from M. L. Findell, and, later, when Findell 
complained that Wickliffe had not paid him 
for his paper, Menefee brought suit and got 
the money. 

But the greatest law case that Richard H. 
Menefee was ever associated in was the famous 
James Rogers will case, which was tried before 
Judge Wooley at the September term of the 
Fayette Circuit Court, 1840. 

On June 18, 1837, James Rogers of Fayette 



250 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

County made his will, in which he recites that 
to his five children by his first wife he has 
already given, at dift'erent times, to each, per- 
sonal and real property amounting to nearly 
five thousand dollars. That having so pro- 
vided for each of the five children of his first 
marriage he now wishes to divide and dis- 
tribute the remainder of his real and personal 
estate and effects between his second wife, 
Susan T. Rogers, and his two children by his 
second marriage, Adaline F. and Charles Flem- 
ing Rogers. In pursuance of which wish he 
bequeathed certain property to his daughter, 
Adaline F. Rogers, and then bequeathed the 
balance of real and personal property to his 
wife Susan T. Rogers and his son Charles 
Fleming Rogers. 

James Rogers died on February 8, 1840, and 
left an estate valued at $50,000. His will was 
probated at the March term of the Fayette Cir- 
cuit Court. On March 28, 1840, suit was 
brought by the five children of the first mar- 
riage against the children and widow of the 
second marriage to have the probate of said 
will set aside. Menefee, Johnson, and Robin- 
son represented the five children, and Henry 
Clay and Robert N. Wickliffe, Sr., represented 
the widow and two children of the second mar- 
riaex. Menefee's clients claimed that a few 
days before making his will James Rogers had 
suft"ered a severe stroke of apoplexy, which 
rendered his mind inadequate to the task of 
making a will, also that his widow and her two 
children had influenced Rogers in dividing 
his estate as he did. In other words, Menefee 
was to try and break the will on the grounds 



RETURN TO KENTUCKY 25 1 

of insanity. The burden of proof then was on 
his side. 

The case was called in Judge Wooley's court 
on October 2, and six days were consumed in 
trying it. Menefee and Clay probably made 
their speeches on October 7, and the case was 
given to the jury. On October 8 the jury re- 
turned the verdict, signed by Richard Har- 
court, the foreman, which said that, in their 
opinion, James Rogers was of sound mind and 
memory when he made his will and it should 
stand as probated. Richard H. Menefee's 
darling ambition to defeat Henry Clay was 
thus set aside. Wherever Menefee is known 
in Kentucky, he is known as the man who low- 
ered Henry Clay's colors in a great law suit. 
This belief is based on the statement to that 
effect in Marshall's eulogy. But, as above 
stated, Menefee lost the case. I have no doubt 
that he made a greater speech than did Clay, 
but the burden of proof was on his side, it was 
too great, and he lost. He went into the case 
against the medical advice of one of the most 
distinguished physicians that Kentucky has 
ever produced. Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley, who 
told him that his physical condition did not 
permit of indulging in such great mental strain 
as would be required to meet Clay ; but he re- 
plied that this was the first and perhaps the 
last opportunity that he would ever have to 
meet the "Great Commoner," and, although he 
had the hard end of the legal knot to untie, he 
was going to make the attempt. He did make 
it, nobly and gallantly, but failed. 

Mr. La Vega Clements, in a speech on 
Menefee, based wholly on Marshall's eulogy 



252 RICHARD HICKMAN MKNEI^EE 

and on Mrs. Menefee's recollections of her hus- 
band, said that, after the verdict of the jury 
had been returned, ''he hurried to her who 
awaited the result. When asked if he was 
tired after the struggle, with the smile of death 
upon his face, as he sat dangling his feet from 
the bedside on which he sat, the old ambition 
and zeal creeping through his wasted frame, he 
answered, 'No.' The same sweet smile that I 
had marked when he came from the legislative 
halls, triumphant, the same genial smile he 
wore from the cradle to the grave." 

On October 15 Wenefee made application 
for a new trial, setting forth six reasons for 
asking for it, but Judge Wooley overruled 
them. The case was then taken to the Ken- 
tucky Court of Appeals, which court, months 
after Menefee's death, sustained the decision of 
the lower court. 

On October 23 Menefee bought from Wil- 
liam H. Rainey ten acres of ground, containing 
a dwelling-house, on South Broadway, for 
$2,790.25 — his fee, no doubt, in the Rogers 
case. This property had been sold on August 
15 by Commissioner Harry I. Bodley to 
Rainey; but for one dollar and other consider- 
ations, Rainey transferred his bonds to Mene- 
fee. This was the only home that Menefee 
ever owned, as he probably rented a house in 
Mt. Sterling and boarded with Mrs. Jouett in 
Lexington. After his death his devisees sold 
the house to Isaac W. Scott, who in turn sold 
it to Jacob Ashton, at one time proprietor of 
the Dudley House, formerly Reiser's Hotel, 
where Menefee received his "boom" for Con- 
gress. On July 13, 1846, John C. Breckinridge, 



RETURN TO KENTUCKY 253 

the youngest of the Vice-Presidents, bought 
the house for $4,500. About ten years later 
General Breckinridge sold it to Rev. W. C. 
Dandy, pastor of the Hill Street M. E. Church, 
and he, in 1865, sold the house to Gen. John B. 
Huston, a celebrated Kentucky lawyer. The 
house has been recently sold to Dr. P. H. Mal- 
loy, and is to-day in a good state of preser- 
vation. As the residence of three distin- 
guished Kentuckians, — Menefee, Breckinridge 
and Huston, — it occupies a place among his- 
toric Kentucky homes second only to Henry 
Clay's "Ashland." 

'On November 4, 1840, William H. Harrison 
of Ohio and John Tyler of Virginia defeated 
Martin Van Buren of New York and Richard 
M. Johnson of Kentucky, by an overwhelm- 
ingly large vote. Menefee's vote for Harrison 
was not only the last Presidential vote he was 
ever to cast, but also the last he was ever to cast 
for any candidate. Democratic electors were 
chosen in only two Northern and five Southern 
States. The new Liberty Party, led by James 
G. Birney, one of Kentucky's sons, did not suc- 
ceed in choosing any electors, but polled nearly 
eight thousand votes. 

The Presidential electors for Kentucky, 
chosen at the Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Con- 
vention of August, 1839, met in Frankfort, 
Kentucky, on December 2, and cast their 
fifteen electoral votes for Harrison and Tyler. 
Through the eft'orts of Menefee, Combs, and 
other men, the Whigs had swept the State. 
All of the electors were present, and this was 
the last time that Menefee was ever in the 
Capitol of his native State, where he achieved 



254 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^EE 

his first legislative triumphs. After the votes 
had been cast for the Whig candidates, the 
question arose as to the one who should carry 
the vote to Washington. There were several 
candidates for this honor, but Col. John 
Payne, a soldier of the war of 1812, was finally 
elected to carry the vote of Kentucky to the 
national capital. In February, 1841, he went 
to Washington, and there the electoral votes 
were counted. The count showed that Harri- 
son and Tyler had received 234 votes, and that 
Van Buren had received 60 and Johnson 48. 
Accordingly, on March 4, 1841, Harrison and 
Tyler were sworn into ofiice. One month from 
the day of his inauguration, Harrison died, and 
Tyler, according to law, became President. 
He was a Calhoun-Democrat and had been 
elected to satisfy the Southern Whigs. Mene- 
fee, however, was not to live to see these events 
come to pass, and they are given here simply 
to round out the story of the great campaign 
of 1840. 

On December 3, Richard H, Menefee re- 
turned to Lexington, and retired to his re- 
cently purchased home. On the following day, 
at sundown in his life, he began the only por- 
tion of his Diary that is extant. We shall now 
let him tell his own storv almost to the end. 



CHAPTER IX 

SUNDOWN 

Diary — December 4th — 1840. 

My birthday 31 years old. This anniversary has 
heretofore invited me to some review of the past as 
well as meditation on the futin-e, generally ending in 
numerous resolutions of amendment of my past career, 
and in as many new enterprises in the acquisition of 
knowledge. One amongst which is the habitual use 
of this book as a diary, commonplace, or as well for 
cultivating and preserving the thoughts of others as 
my own, together with all parts or other matters 
proper to be noted and remembered without much 
respect to order or arrangement. I am the rather per- 
suaded to this from having before me many months of 
leisure (at least compulsory respite from business 
made necessary by ill health) which fairly promises 
to enable me to pursue something of a systematic 
course of general studies, embracing the elements of 
most of the important sciences and the most approved 
of the ancient and modern (British) classics. If my 
health shall be (in the space of a year) properly re- 
established, and I shall in the meantime have accom- 
plished what is here proposed, I shall not regard my 
ill-health as a calamity, but rather as a disguised bless- 
ing. 

I find my religious opinions unsettled. An acknowl- 
edgement not reputable to one of my age in my condi- 
tion — This must not be. 

Dec. 7th — After a conversation of some length with 
my physician. Dr. Dudley, I have resolved henceforth 
to observe the strictest regimen taking only so much 
food as will support life in reasonable strength of 



256 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE^ 

body — enough to prosecute my studies. This course 
is adopted upon his opinion and my own behef that 
my malady is seated ill the organs of digestion and 
that they can only be relieved by comparative rest 
aided by medicines (in the smallest possible quantity 
that will effect the object) for correcting the action of 
the liver — My recovery probably depends on an in- 
flexible adherence; my speedy recovery certainly does. 

I have some thought of drawing up a brief sketch 
of my very obscure and unprofitable life; not for the 
benefit of the present or future generations, but for 
the personal advantage which I think might be drawn 
from the review it would involve. These advantages 
are, to my mind, so evident that it would be easy to 
state them, if I feared the suspicion of having thought 
of such a project as a matter of vanity. But I have 
no fear of the kind for I care not what others might, 
in the premises, suspect. In fact, it looks suspicious, 
quite. 

December nth — I commenced a few days ago the 
history of England from the close of the reign of 
James the ist to the end of William the 3rd, as em- 
bracing its most interesting portion, especially in a 
constitutional point of view. It interests me ex- 
tremely — 

I must read Machiavelli's Works and Murphy's 
Tacitus. 

December 12th — Having just read Bolingbrook's 
letters on the study and use of History and his sketch 
of the History and state of Europe, I conclude to ob- 
serve the impressions he has made upon me. If any- 
thing were wanting to satisfy me of the doubt which 
hangs over the authenticity of nearly all history called 
ancient (including the historical portions of the Scrip- 
ture) , he has confirmed me. True History is Philoso- 
phy teaching by example; the end being to make men 
wiser and better. History is the best substitute for 
experience which cannot be obtained until one enters 
upon the world. It is man's best introduction into the 



SUNDOWN 257 

world, if properly studied. The mere knowledge of 
facts and dates is not a knowledge of history. The 
causes, effects, consequences and dependencies must be 
known. The office of the Historian is (amongst other 
things) to suggest reflections, draw instructive lessons 
to prove the events he narrates. Much history should 
be read merely ; much again should be studied. It is 
not possible to master all ; men should therefore con- 
fine themselves somewhat to what relates more strictly 
to their professions or employments. Modern history 
should be studied from the Fifteenth Century down. 
When causes have spent themselves in their effects, it 
is needless to attempt to go farther back. The links 
are no longer traceable. History gives you a com- 
plete view — the cause, the effect — the beginning, the 
end : whilst experience often, indeed generally, leaves 
the event incomplete, because we may not live to see 
the conclusion. Through PTistory, therefore, more is 
seen than by experience, though probably not so well 
seen. The examples of virtue or vice which works of 
fiction present are less beneficial than that of History, 
because we are less apt to make the case of the actors 
our own. On the same principle that which is really 
seen is more impressive than what is but related. The 
right study of History gives the mind a habit of com- 
prehensive observation; and is of much use even if 
the events are not remembered. Like the study of 
geometry, though the demonstration be forgotten — 
Applications of particular incidents of history are un- 
safe always from the impossibility, in most instances, 
of exactly knowing all the motives and circumstances 
which produced and attended them. Xenophon, 
Thucydides, Sallust. Livy, and Tacitus highly com- 
mended — Bacon's History of Henry the Eighth and 
Clarendon's History approved — strongly recom- 
mended to the Christian Clergy to cultivate the study 
of history in order to vindicate the truth of their re- 
ligion : which he insists rests exclusively on historical 
17 



258 RICHARD HICKMAN Mt'^tT^tt 

proofs, which proofs were in his day not the clearest. 
The intercourse through History with the great men 
of the world and participation in their actions; the 
view of States, rising, flourishing, falling; and that; 
in general, of which true history consists ; has the 
same ennobling effect (though in a less degree) as if 
a witness to it all, and acting in it all. In reading his- 
tory one should not be pyrrhonic any more than im- 
plicit. Machiavelli, Father Paul, Guicciardini, Davila, 
real historians. 

I have fallen into a habit of profane swearing which 
I cannot tolerate in others. Why should I tolerate or 
expect others to tolerate it in myself? By the bones of 
Becket I will quit it. 

I feel greatly the need of a congenial circle ii; which 
to spend profitably in conversation, a part of the time 
which (by my being wholly withdrawn from business) 
often hangs heavily upon mc: Besides the importance 
of such conversation to any man in my condition — 
Lord Bacon affirms that an hour's conversation is 
equal to a week of meditation : it gives activity and 
vent to what otherwise stagnates. 

December 14th — I have read most of Lord Bacon's 
Works — To a man who is preparing himself for the 
profession of law or the civil service of his country, I 
do not think they contain much worthy to be studied : 
excepting of course his admirable Essays which can- 
not be too deeply studied — His labors were of ines- 
timable value to mankind by leading the way to the 
wonderful progress since made in every department 
of science and art ; But they contained the seed merely ; 
the fruit of which may be gathered from later works. — 
I scarcely know a greater benefactor of mankind ; for 
whom rather than for himself or his own fame he 
chiefly labored ; inasmuch as he completed hardly any- 
thing but prepared it for the hands of those who 
should follow him. In the war which in that age Avas 
opened against false learning he contented himself with 
ordering the hosts for battle, leaving the attack and 



SUNDOWN 259 

victory to be led on and won by other leaders. I rever- 
ence his memory without (but Httle) abatement aris- 
ing from his fauhs (which were great) as a statesman 
and magistrate : they have been over-expiated by his 
services to mankind. — Had Newton been compelled to 
waste his time and strength in the preparations which 
Bacon placed ready to his hand, who can say that his 
wonderful genius could ever have achieved what it 
did? He was at the outset armed cap-a-pie by Bacon. 

I have resolved to study thoroughly and profoundly 
the history of England, (especially its political his- 
tory) from the beginning of the reign of James ist to 
the close of Queen Anne's ; but I fear shall want ma- 
terials to render the course complete — I shall not so 
much desire to remember particular events, measures, 
or characters as to become imbued with the true spirit 
of the times ("which I consider them to have been) 
which established the present system of English lib- 
erty. The importance of this period of history to an 
American statesman or jurist is extremely obvious. I 
go so far as to affirm that our political institution can- 
not be tolerably understood without it. So with re- 
spect to our own history — Want of time will urge me 
rapidly on, but I trust my deep sense of the value of 
the labor will enable me quickly to master it. 

I have had a thought of reading Sully's Memories 
and other works containing (interspersed with other 
matter) profound, moral and political reflections and 
observations, in such a way as to note them as I pro- 
gress, by the pages where found, and afterwards 
throwing them together in a suitable form in my com- 
monplace book either in literal extracts or in my own 
language. I read for results which T take such reflec- 
tions and nbserwitions to be. 

December 17th— Tt is proper that T should qualify 
myself to the utmost in my retirement for practice in 
the criminal department of my profession : to which 
end the statutes of this State and the standard works 
on criminal laws should be thoroughly studied. The 



260 RICHARD HICKMAN MEINE;?^^ 

body of the criminal law is fortunately not very ex- 
tensive. — 

December i8th — My memory has not been suffi- 
ciently cultivated and is not the best. My fault has 
been (if fault it be and so I regard it) to consider too 
little of the past : My eyes have been intent on the 
future. It is needful to a successful future that there 
should be a well considered past. — I have entered upon 
the correction of this fault : Amongst other means by 
exercising my memory by miscellaneous and uncon- 
nected questions to myself — from time to time, upon 
what I have read or done during the day or any period 
past, although tried but a few days I am sensible of 
improvement. — Many men have attained great emi- 
nence who had bad memories ; but a good memory is 
of inestimable value. Yet, like all else that is good, it 
may be excessive whereby men (trusting too much to 
it) neglect other faculties of the mind, still more im- 
portant. Indeed it is remarkable that most extraordi- 
nary memoi*y is frequently associated with feeble ca- 
pacity. 

December 19th — To insure a more perfect acquaint- 
ance with the constitution of the United States and 
State of Kentucky I will shortly copy them into this 
book. Such a practice in the case of writings of pecu- 
liar importance and not too voluminous is the best 
means that I know of to acquire a critical knowledge 
of them : besides strongly imprinting them on the 
memory. — 

Although I had often read it before, I was never 
so forcibly struck, as when reading it again this morn- 
ing by the powerful sketch of Blackstone. in the fourth 
volume of his commentaries, of the origin and prog- 
ress of the Papal ursurpations in Europe. 

Painting, sculpture and other kindred arts have this 
advantage over eloquence — in the former, the student 
has the full benefit of the greatest works of the great- 
est masters as models ; in the latter, it is otherwise. 
In the first place, it is impossible by any human means 



SUNDOWN 



261 



to place in an enduring form the high exploits of elo- 
quence : They are too retherial to be chained in a sta- 
tionary form, either on paper or canvass. By this the 
student of eloquence necessarily loses the chief benefit 
of the ancient masters. Secondly; — of the modern 
masters he can profit but little more, (if as much, in- 
deed) because less nicety is observed in committing 
their performances to writing (on which the ancient 
bestowed incalculable pains). He may occasionally 
have the benefit of "a sitting" by hearing and seeing a 
great orator perform; but such orators are rare, and 
rare are the occasions on which they could be studied. 

December i8th — Procure the most approved edition 
of Plutarch's Lives and become and continue familiar 
with them. Few books, in my opinion, have so much 
aroused the ambition of the moderns, by infusing into 
the minds of men the suhliniity of antiquity. The eye 
is directed to the noble forest trees; the undergrowth 
is disregarded. 

December 21 — As yet I have taken no steps towards 
obtaining a regular miscellaneous library. Some books 
I have that are valuable; but snatched up without 
method. I shall endeavor to form not an extensive 
but a well selected library, confined to the Classics in 
the English language, and other works of solid matter ; 
having an especial eye to the history and politics of my 
own country; and to the most approved Encyclope- 
dias. 

I closed this morning the history of England by 
Hume from the auspices of Charles the ist, to that of 
Charles the Second, covering the stormy period of the 
Civil war — It is the first history that I can be said to 
have studied in its true sense. — I congratulate myself 
on the profit I suppose myself to have derived 
from it. — No period of history of the human 
race, of the same duration, is more fruitful in 
materials for profitable reflection. Never was human 
nature laid barer to the observation of the philosopher : 
indeed, it appears in a state so naked as rather to shock 



262 RICHARD HICKMAN MEINE^ES 

by the exposure — • Ages may pass before an oppor- 
tunity will again arise so favorable to the study of 
man: the French Revolution has thus far approxi- 
mated nearest. Philosophy must await another arrival 
of the kind for the study of the happiness of men, as 
it does violent convulsions of nature for a knowledge 
of physical phenomena; or the transit of the planets 
for observations in Astronomy. 

December 24th — Having taken an unusual amount 
of exercise, I was betrayed by a ravenous appetite to 
eat too much dinner. From the dinner itself I experi- 
enced some inconvenience, but the consciousness of 
acting so madly (in my condition) has given me a 
pain (arising from a sense of remorse) that I have not 
lately felt. It wall serve to warn me. 

December 25th — I take my pen this morning with a 
languid hand and a depressed mind. Want of sleep 
for several nights (which until this morning I did not 
feel the injury of) has at length shown itself in lan- 
guor disqualifying me from study. — The prospect, 
too, of protracted ill-health and suffering, wath no ab- 
solute certainty of recovery operates to aggravate this 
(to me) first Christmas of sorrow. What a contrast 
between this and every other Christmas I remember! 
I stand in need, truly of every resource I possess to 
bear me up. — God, dispel the clouds which have for 
now near eight months hung over me, and restore my 
spirit and body again to their accustomed health ! My 
wdfe, too, the most excellent w^oman that lives, is worn 
into sickness by incessant watchings over a favorite 
child long distressingly afflicted and whose death in a 
short time must be added to the sum of my other mis- 
eries. Still, will I brace myself against all this and 
more, and worse, if Heaven ordains it. — Already I 

feel tranquilized and consoled Should my disease 

assume a form which would forbid books and study, I 
confess I shall be without resources to support it : 
desolate, helpless, pitiable! All that reconciles me to 
my expulsion from the world is the consciousness that 



SUNDOWN 263 

an uninterrupted application to study will, when my 
health shall be restored, place me, when I re-enter it, 
far in advance of what I was when I left it. How 
then, could I endure the refkction that all the time I 
am confined, the world is leaving me rapidly behind ! 
which would be so if I shall become disqualified to 
study. — 

December 28th — I think that I do not read fast 
enough — dwelling too long. Matter, to be sure, worth 
reading (and nothing else ought to be read) cannot be 
too well digested. Yet there is such a thing as a waste 
of time even upon the best matter. I will, in future 
execute more; especially as I am forcing my memory 
into better discipline; for in the rapidity of my per- 
ception I have some confidence. (Whilst on the 
memory, I am reminded that mine has been injured by 
running over matter supposed not to be worth reading 
merely to prevent the possibility of anything of value 
escaping. It would be better to teach the memory 
implicitly to treasure up all you read. Yet I would 
not be understood to aspire to the possession of a 
wonderful memory; contenting myself with a good 
sound one. 

December 29th — I am rejoiced to discover this 
morning that, the symptoms which lately gave me so 
much concern, proceeded from using a diet which 
(though generally considered light) proved not at all 
to agree with me : a discontinuance of which for but 
a single meal has almost restored me to the condition 
I was in before the injury was received. This admon- 
ishes me to be still more strict in my regimen. To 
guard against temptation to eat improperly, I resolved 
yesterday upon the suggestion of my wife, to with- 
draw henceforth from my attendance at table, and to 
take my meals — by allowance as to quantity — in my 
own chamber — My spirits are quite up once more; 
and I am now in the comfortable enjoyment of exist- 
ence. The consciousness of having mastered sick- 



264 RICHARD HICKMAN M^NEl^E^ 

ness by self-denial is certainly delightful ; the more so 
from its rarity. 

December 30th — I am apt both in public speech and 
in conversation to express myself too much in super- 
latives; whereby I lack force. Like one who to give 
emphasis to what he wrote should employ italics 
altogether. Nature must be consulted in this as in all 
things else — (And whilst in conversation, I will add 
that I have a faulty habit of talking too much even to 
the indecent interruption of others whilst actually 
speaking. Nothing can be more unhandsome or im- 
polite. By judgment, you can always find time to 
offer measurably all that it is proper for you to say; 
which, when thus said carries the greater weight; 
ingratiating yourself in the meantime. Lord Bacon 
has an excellent essay on discourse which young men 
would do well to study — To converse well being a rare 
as well as valuable faculty (I hardly know one more 
valuable) one who has the material cannot too ardu- 
ously cultivate it. My vanity suggests to me that I 
am not destitute of it; though it now lays in a scat- 
tered and disordered state: still being within the 
remedy of study, observation, and experience — - 

January 13th, 1841 — The interval since my last 
note in this book has been one of great suffering to 
me. No man, until he has himself tried it, can realize 
the difficulty of controlling his appetite. All speak 
flippantly enough of doing it : But I pronounce that 
an inflexible adherence to a regimen so severe as to 
allow food barely sufficient to support life, with any 
tolerable amount of strength, is amongst that difficult 
undertaking that the wise or simple can engage in. 
Yet such regimen may all the time, be known to be 
the sole means of escaping death. The cravings of 
nature are immediate, animal ; whilst the necessity of 
denial is remote, intellectual. — Without being fully 
convinced by the fact that I shall be able to succeed to 
the full extent, I hope and believe that I shall be able 



SUNDOWN 265 

to do SO in a very reasonable degree from this time 
forward so long as my condition may require it. — 

Amongst a variety of other resolutions formed for 
the future, I have undertaken to cultivate more than 
I have heretofore done, in social affections: wife, 
children, relatives — friends — acquaintances. I am 
sure that I have bent my endeavors too exclusively to 
the cultivation of the understanding. The under- 
standing itself expands with the culture of the other 
affections and cannot reach its last flights without this 
aid: especially when the understanding (as with the 
orator) must deal so often and momentarily with the 
affections. — 

A few days ago I took up Marshall's abridgement of 
his life of Washington, at the 25th chapter which finds 
Washington a private citizen at his plantation on the 
Potomac, and read the ensuing part of the work. 
Nothing can be more admirable! When before was 
the life of such a man as Washington traced with such 
a hand as that of Marshall ? Illustrious men ! 

January 15th — It is always painful to me to see a 
long catalogue of valuable books that I have never 
read; that, for example, of the Library of Congress. 
Oh ! it discourages me to the last degree, to know how 
much must be to me unknown! — But, wisely is it 
ordained that it is not needful that all need be known, 
for any purpose either of benevolence or renown. 
Men are driven to select from the illimitable field of 
knowledge some comparatively small space, and 
thoroughly explore and cultivate it. Not confining 
themselves, however, to one mathematical point of 
knowledge some comparatively small space, and 
the situation of your dominions from the vast conti- 
nent of knowledge, to appropriate enough not only 
for your Capital (your main object — Law, for ex- 
ample) but for a multitude of Dependencies : not 
occupied for their own sake, but as supports to the 
principal possession. What to some is but the mathe- 
matical point, should be the centre of a wide circle: 



266 RICHARD HICKMAN M^NEFEEJ 

the apex of the pyramid. — Men must not rationally 
aim at universal Conquest in knowledge — What a 
wonderful difference there is between the mass of 
Ancient and Modern Literature! An ordinary pri- 
vate library of the present day is often found to con- 
tain nearly all the remains of Ancient Literature; at 
least to contain books equal to them in bulk. The 
books of the Modern, would, if cultivated, tower into 
mountains! After all, there is some consolation 
afforded by the reflection that every book does not 
necessarily contain new thoughts ; and that the knowl- 
edge of a few of the best may possess us of much that 
is found in multitudes of others: so that it does not 
follow that not to have read a book is to have lost the 
wisdom it contained. You know the man : he but 
wears a dress of a new fashion. 

Menefee's extant Diary closed January 15, 
and from then on to the end his suffering was 
terrible. At first it was seated in the organs 
of the digestion, and bad action of the liver. 
Finally, contrary to the prevalent opinion 
throu2hout Kentucky that he died of tubercu- 
losis of the lungs, consumption of the bowels 
developed and this disease was the cause of his 
death. His wife afterward insisted that "he 
was killed by malpractice, starved to death." 

On February 15, 1841, Governor Letcher 
sent to the Kentucky legislature the resigna- 
tion of John J. Crittenden, United States Sena- 
tor from Kentucky, who had resigned to ac- 
cept the position of Attorney-General in Har- 
rison's cabinet.' Crittenden's resignation was 
accepted by the legislature, and they at once 
proceeded to the election of his successor. The 

^ House Journal, 1841. 



SUNDOWN 267 

names of James T. Morehead, Charles A. 
Wickliffe, William Owsley, John Calhoun, 
Richard A. Buckner, and Thomas Metcalfe 
were put in nomination. Morehead led on the 
first vote but he did not obtain enough to elect. 
On the 18th of February, after the fourteenth 
ballot had been taken, with Morehead still 
leading, Cassius M. Clay, representative from 
Fayette County, nominated Richard H. Mene- 
fee. This was the greatest honor that Menefee 
ever received, and it came to him when he was 
on his death-bed, with only three more days to 
live. Clay was ordered by the Speaker to in- 
form the Senate that he had put Menefee's 
name in nomiriation. On the fifteenth ballot 
Menefee received the vote of the Speaker, 
Charles S. Morehead, and Representatives 
Adams, Botts, Brent, Chenault, Clay, Curd, 
Curie, Ford, Forman, Hawkins, Hazlerigg, 
Latimer, Marshall, C. A. Morgan, Newell, 
Raymond, Snyder, ^^'aring, Williams and 
Woodson — 22. In the Senate on this ballot, 
Menefee received only one vote, that of Charles 
J. Walker, of the Twenty-third senatorial dis- 
trict. This ballot ended Calhoun 42, Buck- 
ner 34, Morehead 31, and Menefee 23. This 
was the joint vote of the Senate and House. 
None of the candidates had enough votes to 
elect and the sixteenth ballot was taken. In 
the House, Alenefee received the votes of Rep- 
resentatives Adams, Bruton, Bullock, Chen- 
ault, Clay, Curd, Curie, Ford, Hazlerigg, Innes, 
Morgan, Raymond, Skiles, Smith, H. H.; 
Waring and Woodson — 16. He had gained 
some new votes but had lost some of the men 
who voted for him on the fifteenth ballot. In 



268 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEF'EEJ 

the Senate, Senator Walker again voted for 
Menefee, and he also gained four new votes in 
the upper House, Morgan, Rice, M. Williams, 
and Young. The joint vote resulted: Calhoun 
39, Buckner 36, Morehead 35, and Menefee 21. 

On the seventeenth ballot Menefee received 
in the House the votes of Representatives At- 
kins, Botts, Bruton, Bullock, Chenault, Clay, 
Cunningham, Curd, Curie, Ford, Gabbert, 
Hawkins, Hazlerigg, Innes, Marshall, C. A. ; 
Morgan, Newell, Raymond, Riffe, Rudd, 
Skiles, Stephan, N. B.; Waring, Watts, Wil- 
liams, and Woodson — 26. He had won 
back some of the representatives who voted for 
him on his first ballot and also gained a few 
new ones. In the Senate, Young did not vote 
for Menefee on this ballot, but the other four 
Senators who had voted for him on the six- 
teenth ballot also voted for him on the seven- 
teenth, and he gained two extra votes in J- S. 
Morgan and Gen. S. L. Williams, with whom 
]\Ienefee had represented Montgomery County 
in the Whig State Convention of 1836. The 
joint vote resulted: Calhoun 39, Menefee 32, 
Morehead and Buckner 31 votes each. Then, 
after ]\Ienefee had gained eleven votes on one 
ballot, and with one vote ahead of the man who 
was finally elected. Clay, for some reason un- 
known to me, withdrew his name. 

On the twentieth ballot Joseph R. Under- 
wood was nominated, but on the twenty-first 
ballot James T. Morehead was elected as Crit- 
tenden's successor in the Senate. 

On Saturday morning, February 20, 1841, 
Richard H. Menefee realized that only a few 
hours remained before he would be called bv 



SUNDOWN 269 

his Maker to join the Choir Invisible whose 
music is the gladness of the world. He had 
made a will before he purchased his home, and 
as he desired to revoke it he sent for his friends, 
Madison C. Johnson, Thomas A. Marshall, 
Waller B. Redd, and Doctor Benjamin W. 
Dudley, who was his physician, to draw up and 
act as testators to a second will. The body of 
the instrument was drawn by M. C. Johnson, 
and was very brief. It simply stated that after 
the payment of all his just debts, he devised 
and bequeathed the whole of his estate to his 
beloved wife, for her own support and main- 
tenance and for his children's support. He 
gave her full and ample power over the whole 
of his property in its disposition. He ap- 
pointed M. C. Johnson to be his executor and 
gave him authority to settle, compromise, and 
adjust all and every part of his business. He 
then subscribed his hand. The testators to the 
body of the will were Doctor Dudley and 
Thomas A. Marshall. Although codicils had 
been denounced by one of Menefee's most dis- 
tinguished contemporaries, Ben Hardin, who 
rewrote his will before be would add a codicil, 
Menefee, nevertheless, then asked Thomas A. 
Marshall to add one, which stated that it was 
his further will and desire that no security 
should be required from his executor, M. 
C. Johnson, for the discharge of the duties 
which he had imposed upon him, as he had en- 
tire confidence in him. Menefee then sub- 
scribed his hand, a trembling, nervous one, to 
the codicil, which was the last time he ever 
wrote his name. 

Years after Menefee's death, M. C. Johnson 



270 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI'II^ 

(1806-1886) showed his appreciation of Mene- 
fee when he said, ''Richard Menefee is the 
greatest lawyer that I ever met." Johnson had 
met all of the great Kentucky lawyers, and 
many of the leading lawyers of America. His 
opinion is, therefore, worth recording. John- 
son was eminent as a financier and suggested 
to the Government the three per cent, bonds, 
by which millions of dollars were saved to the 
National Government. 

During that day Doctor Dudley told Mene- 
fee that he could live for only a few hours, and 
he replied, according to Marshall, "Brief sum- 
mons." Late that night, a few hours before 
the dawn of a Sabbath day, it became evident to 
the good doctor, Menefee's wife, Mrs. Matthew 
Jouett, his mother-in-law, and the other 
watchers at the bed-side, that the immortal 
spirit of Richard Hickman Menefee was about 
to ascend to his Master, and a few mo- 
ments before his death, Mrs. Jouett asked 
him in what was his hope.' He replied: "The 
blood of Jesus," which were his last words. 
He died at the age of thirty-one years, two 
months, two weeks and two days. As he died 
very late on Saturday night, some of the news- 
papers, who noticed his death, said that he 
died early Sunday morning. The epitaph, on 
the old Allen grave-yard tomb-stone, fixes the 
date of his death on the twentieth, and this of 
course settles all controversy in regard to this 
point. On the day that IMenefee died there was 
born, in Kentucky, the great geologist, Dean 
Nathaniel S. Shaler, who has been recently 
slathered to his fathers. 



* Mrs. Menefee's letter to Mr. Clements. 



CHAPTER X 

MEMORIALS 

One of the most lasting Menefee memorials 
is the portrait that Oliver Frazer (1808-1864), 
the Kentucky artist who ranks just helow his 
master, Jouett, painted of Menefee, which he 
sat for two days before his death. The picture 
shows him to be greatly emaciated. It was 
finished after his death. Frazer and Menefee 
were friends, and when the former was in 
Europe, studying art, he often referred to 
Menefee in his letters home. Besides Mene- 
fee's portrait, he painted a picture of Henry 
Clay, that the "Commoner" regarded as the 
best picture that he had ever had painted. 
Frazer also painted portraits of Joel T. Hart, 
the famous Kentucky sculptor, and Chief-Jus- 
tice George Robertson, perhaps the brainiest 
man that ever presided over the Kentucky 
Supreme Court, 

The first notice of Menefee's death appeared 
in the Lexington Intelligencer for Tuesday 
morning, February 23, 1841. The editor, 
Edwin Bryant, gave a good biographical 
sketch of Menefee, and then added the follow- 
ing beautiful tribute: 

As a debater, he was peculiarly distinguished for his 
candor, courtesy, and dignity; the lucidness and 
beauty of his illustrations and the overwhelming force 
of his reasoning and eloquence which seemed to sweep 
away witliout an apparent effort every obstacle placed 
in their course by his adversary and to carry convic- 



2^2. RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

tion to the heart of the most obdurate; breaking into 
fragments the panoply of prejudice and ignorance, and 
penetrating to the most hidden recesses of the soul. 
"Thou speakest as never man spake," was the involun- 
tary thought of the listener in those moments when 
all his peculiar eloquence burst forth ; and he seemed 
then as one inspired by some superior agency. 
Before a jury or a promiscuous audience, his power 
was equally irresistible. He could mould them to his 
will, and wield them to suit his pleasure. Never in a 
forensic or popular encounter did his adversary come 
off victorious. Wit and sarcasm were ever at his 
command, and his persuasiveness rarely failed to ac- 
complish the end desired. 

Great as were the merits of the distinguished sub- 
ject of this hasty and imperfect sketch, in that part of 
his character which we have noticed they did not ex- 
ceed his moral and domestic virtues. He was 
amiable, unpretending, kind, generous, noble. His 
fidelity, truth, friendship and honor, could have been 
tested by the sacrifices of his life. He has gone down 
to his grave without spot or blemish to sully his repu- 
tation. So pure were his aspirations, and so blame- 
less the tenor of his life, that envy itself dared not raise 
its voice or point its finger against him; and malice 
if such, from wrong impressions were ever harbored 
against him, was powerless and mute. 

He has left a most amiable and interesting wife and 
family to mourn his melancholy and untimely exit. 
To them his loss is irreparable. The void can never 
be filled up. The stern Destroyer has interposed 
between them and him, and cut down, in the dawn of 
his manhood, usefulness and greatness, the affectionate 
and devoted husband, the kind father — their stay, 
their hope — the object of their pride and their love. 
But they, nor his immediate friends, are the sole 
mourners. His native State, and the whole nation, 
has suffered a bereavement which they most acutely 
feel and long and deeply deplore. He was a star of 



me;moriai.s 273 

promise, that bid to outshine the most brilhant in the 
moral firmament of greatness and fame. That star 
has prematurely and eternally set in Death ; and we 
shall never be permitted to behold its meridian 
splendor; or witness again its earlier glories. The 
Sfolden bowl is broken. His soul has taken its earth- 
less flight. 

Colonel Hodges, on the same day, in the 
Frankfort Commonzvealfh, said: "We have just 
heard, and announce it with deep regret, which 
will be felt, not only in Kentucky but through- 
out the nation, that the Honorable Richard H. 
IMenefee died in Lexington on Sunday morn- 
ing at two o'clock of that day." Hodges got 
the date of his death incorrect, as has already 
been mentioned. His account of Menefee's 
death was copied in Niles's National Register 
(Washington, D. C.) for March 6, 1841. 

The Hon. Thomas M. Hickey presented 
the proceedings of a meeting of the members 
of the Bar and officers of the Fayette Circuit 
Court at the court-house in Lexington on Mon- 
day the 22d of February, 1841, on the occasion 
of the death of Richard H. Menefee, Esq., be- 
fore the Court on February 23d. Judge Hickey 
was called to the chair and Harry L Bodley ap- 
pointed secretary. Madison C. Johnson, Esq., 
announced the melancholy event and ofifered 
the following resolutions which were unani- 
mously adopted: 

Resolved, That we deeply deplore, as a public 
calamity and private bereavement, the untimely death 
of our distinguished and highly gifted brother mem- 
ber of the bar, Richard H. Menefee, Esq., and that 
18 



2/4 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

our professional and personal association with him, 
affords us the consolation upon this mournful dispen- 
sation of Providence to add our testimony to the voice 
of the country in favor of his spotless honor and 
integrity and to declare our very exalted respect and 
admiration for his extraordinary talents and great 
intellectual endowment. 

Rcsok'cd, That we desire to express to the afflicted 
widow and family of our deceased friend our com- 
miseration in their distress, and that AI. C. Johnson, 
J. R. Sloan, and H. I. Bodley be appointed on our 
behalf to communicate to them our condolence in the 
manner which may seem to them most appropriate. 

Resolved, That as a manifestation of our regard 
for the memory of the deceased, we will go into 
mourning and wear crape on the left arm for thirty 
days, and that we will attend his funeral this day. 

Resolved, That the Judge of the Fayette Circuit 
Court be requested to direct that the proceedings of 
this meeting be made a part of the record of the court, 
as a perpetual memorial of our veneration of our de- 
ceased brother, and that the same be published. 

The Union Philosophical Society, of which 
IMenefee was a member while at Transylvania 
University; the Transylvania University 
]\Iedical School and the Law Society, of which 
he was a member while in the Law School, all 
passed resolutions of respect upon his death, 
and resolved to wear mourning on the left arm 
for thirtv davs, and to attend his funeral in a 
body. Of these resolutions, the one of the Law 
Society amounted to more than either of the 
other two. The last sentence of the Society's 
resolutions was as follows: "That Thomas F. 
^Marshall shall be requested to deliver an ad- 
dress to this society on the character of the 
deceased, at any time that may be convenient 
to himself.'' 



MEMORIALS 275 

At his late home on South Broadway, at 
three o'clock Tuesday afternoon, February 23, 
1841, Richard H, ]^Ienefee"s funeral occurred. 
It was probably conducted by Rev. Xathan H. 
Hall, the Presbyterian minister who had per- 
formed his marriage ceremony, and of whose 
church ]\Ienefee's wife was a member. There 
was no funeral oration at the house or at the 
grave. With the members of the Fayette bar, 
the students of Transylvania University, and 
hundreds of friends and admirers of his elo- 
quence and genius, the funeral procession 
moved north to Main street and then west to 
the old family burying-ground of William 
Allen, Mrs. Touett's father, situated on the 
Georgetown road about two miles from Lex- 
ington. Here [Nlenefee was buried, near the 
grave of Kentucky's master artist, and his 
father-in-law, Matthew Harris Touett. Ken- 
tucky waited until Menefee's friend and con- 
temporarv', Thomas F. Marshall, should pre- 
pare his eulogy- on ^lenefee, which took him 
about scA-en weeks to do. 

Obituaries appeared in all of the Kentucky 
newspapers and in papers of other States. In 
the ]\Iaysville Eagle for Februar\- 24, Lewis 
Collins, the Kentucky historian, recorded 
]Menefee's death and predicted that, had he 
lived, he would have been Henry Clay's succes- 
sor in the Cnited States Senate. Collins was 
misinformed as to the cause of his death. 

^^'e learn by passengers in the Western Stage that 
Richard H. Menefee. Esq.. one of the ablest, if indeed 
he were not the ven.- ablest man of his age in Ken- 
tuck\-, in the L'nion — died in Lexington on Saturday 
night. His disease was bronchitis. A brilliant star, 



276 RICHARD HICKMAN M^N^FEE 

which had mounted, ahnost in a twinkhng, to the 
zenith, has thus been stricken from the pohtical firma- 
ment of Kentucky ! We mourn his death, as a State, 
nay, as a National bereavement. Had an all-wise 
but inscrutable Providence spared his life, the highest 
honors of the Republic awaited him. He would have 
filled the place in the councils and in the estimation of 
his countrymen, which must soon be vacated, in the 
ordinary course of things, by the distinguished patriot, 
who has enriched Kentucky with a halo of unfading 
glory. 

The Nashville, Tennessee JF/n'g for March 3, 
1841, copied vcrhatim' Collins's account of 
Menefee's death. This fact shows that the 
fame of Kentucky's young- orator was pene- 
trating southward as it had already penetrated 
northward. 

The Cincinnati, Ohio, Daily Times, edited by 
Edwin R. Campbell, for Wednesday evening, 
February 24, noticed Menefee's death in the 
following words : 

We learn from the morning papers that intelligence 
has been received here of the death of Richard H. 
Menefee, late a member of Congress from Kentucky, 
and one of the candidates for United States Senator at 
the recent election by the legislature of that State. 
He died suddenly at Lexington on Saturday evening 
last. Although for a year past the health of Mr. 
Menefee has been so feeble as to preclude his entering 
into the active public life which has characterized that 
period, yet his friends hoped in the anticipated recov- 
ery of his health, that he might be spared through a 
long life of usefulness of which the brilliant com- 
mencement of his public career gave such abundant 
promise. It is well added by one of the morning 
papers that "no man was more fitted to honor public 



MEMORTAIvS ^jy 

station or ornament private life! His efforts in Con- 
gress bear testimony to the former, and his numerous 
friends will attest to the latter. In the halls of our 
National Legislature he was regarded as one of the 
brightest ornaments of the great Southwest, which, 
with others, he represented. Although abounding as 
that State does with talent of the highest order, Ken- 
tucky will not soon forget him." 

The Washington, D. C, National Intelligencer 
on March 3 said : 

The last mail from the west brings us the news of 
the death of the Honorable R. H. Menefee, in whom 
Kentucky has lost one of her proudest hopes. His 
service for two years in Congress (from 1837 to 
1839) commencing, we believe, before he had reached 
his thirtieth year, in which he acquired a high charac- 
ter, afforded the promise of yet greater usefulness, 
when time should have matured his abilities and 
ripened his experience. Many, who looked forward 
with pleased anticipation to his reappearance on the 
stage of public life, will, with us, sincerely lament the 
early decline which has snatched him from his family 
and society, and left them only the odor of his virtues 
and the memory of his estimable qualities for the con- 
solation of their griefs. 

The AVashington Madisonian, for the same 
day, announced Menefee's death in the follow- 
ing language : 

We sympathize most sincerely with the deep regret 
which has been excited among the members of Con- 
gress, and his numerous friends in this city, by the 
death of the Hon. Richard H. Menefee, formerly a 
Representative from the nth District of Kentucky. 
He died at Lexington on Saturday, February 20th. 



278 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^SE 

Mr. Menefee entered Congress at the Extra Session 
of 1837; and at once distinguished himself by his 
genius, intelhgence and debating power; while his 
amiable and generous disposition, and high-principled 
and chivalric character gained him the personal re- 
gard and attachment of the best men of all parties. 
No young man, within our recollection has ever 
entered public life giving better promise of a brilliant 
and illustrious career. His early death is a great loss 
to his State, and to the whole country." 

The Commencement exercises of the Tran- 
sylvania Law School were held a few days 
after Menefee's death. The class was still 
wearing mourning for him. John M. Bright, 
of Tennessee, the valedictorian, at the close of 
his exquisite valedictory, referred to Menefee 
in the following beautiful language: 

Respected fellow-students : May each one of you 
become a distinguished gentleman and lawyer, and if 
death should invade our ranks, while in the bloom of 
life, may each one fall, reeking with professional 
honors, as he did, for whom we wear these appendages 
of mourning. The burning words of eloquence will 
never again be heard from the fiery tongue of the 
noble, the highly gifted Menefee. He now sleeps in 
the cold, still house. May the clods rest lightly on his 
generous bosom, and may his memory 

" ' Grow greener with the years, — 

And blossom thro' the flight of ages.' " 

On April 12, 1841, in Morrison Chapel of 
Transylvania University, the present main 
building of Kentucky University, Thomas 

* Copied from Lexington Intelligencer in Nashville Whig, 
of Tennessee. 



MEMORIALS 279 

Francis Marshall (1801-1864), delivered before 
the Law Society of the University his eulogy 
on the "Life and Character of Richard H. 
Menefee." The historical inaccuracies have 
been noticed in the body of the book, and they 
will not be further noticed in foot-notes. 

marshai^l's eulogy 

Gentlemen of the Law Society : 

I am not here to recount in set phrase and with that 
courtesy which the living always pay to the dead, the 
virtues, real or supposed, of one around whose fate, 
youth and interesting private relations alone have cast 
a transient interest. I come not merely to acquit me of 
a duty to one whom I personally loved and admired, to 
weave a fading garland for his tomb, or scatter affec- 
tion's incense over his ashes. Mine is a severer task, 
a more important duty. I stand here, gentlemen, as 
a member of a great commonwealth, amidst assembled 
thousands of her citizens, to mourn with them the 
blow sudden and overwhelming, which has fallen upon 
the country. He about whose young brows there 
clustered most of honor — he. around whose name and 
character, there gathered most of public hope — the 
flower of our Kentucky youth, "the rose and expec- 
tancy of the fair State" lies uprooted. He, who by 
the unaided strength of his own great mind, had 
spurned from his path each obstacle that impeded and 
rolled back the clouds which darkened his morning 
march — who in his fresh youth had reached an emi- 
nence of fame and of influence, which to a soul less 
ardent might have seemed the topmost pinnacle, but 
which to him, was only a momentary resting place, 
from whence, with an undazzled eye and elastic limb, 
he was preparing to spring still upwards and nearer to 
the sun of glory, which glowed above him ; while the 
admiring crowd below were watching with intensest 



280 RICHARD HICKMAN ME^NEFEE 

interest each movement of his towering step, each 
wave of his eagle wing, 

'"Why sudden droops his crest? 

The shaft is sped, the arrow's in his breast.' " 
Death canonizes a great name and the seal of the 
sepulchre excludes from its slumbering tenant the 
breath of envy. I might fling the reins to fancy and 
indulge in the utmost latitude of panegyric without 
offence; the praises of the dead fret not the living. 
But I am not here upon an ordinary occasion to pro- 
nounce a pompous eulogy in set terms of a vague and 
general praise. You have directed me to draw the 
life and character, to delineate the very form and 
figure of the mind of one, whose moral likeness you 
wish to inscribe in enduring and faithful colors upon 
your archives, not only as a memorial of one loved and 
lost, but as an example and model for the study and 
imitation of yourselves and successors. It is not a 
sample of rhetoric, but a perpetuation of his image, 
that you seek, as the monument best suited to the sub- 
ject, as a real and historic standard by which the youth 
of after times may measure and elevate the idea and 
the stature of excellence. And surely, if ever there 
were mirror in which young genius could glass and 
fashion itself; if ever there were mould in which the 
forming intellect could be cast in the just and full 
proportions of graceful energy and perfect strength; 
he, of whom we are to speak this day, was that mirror 
and that mould. Would that the artist were equal 
to his work, would that his mind were fully up to the 
dignity of his subject; then indeed would I gladly 
obey your high command ; and give to posterity, em- 
bodied in my land's language, the very form and linea- 
ment, the breathing attitude, the intrepid port, the 
beaming hope, the dauntless energy of a genius which 
"poverty and disease could not impair, and which 
death itself destroyed, rather than subdued." Ah, 
had he but lived ! on that broad pedestal laid already, 
he would himself have raised a statue colossal and 



MEMORIALS 281 

historic, an individual likeness, but a national monu- 
ment, than which never did the Grecian chisel, from 
out of the sleeping marble, awake a form of grander 
proportions or of more enduring beauty. He medi- 
tated such a work and was fast gathering round him 
the eternal materials. Type of his country, he sought 
to mingle himself with her existence and her fame and 
to transmit his name to remote generations as an 
epitome of her early genius and her history, and as 
the most signal example of the power of her institu- 
tions, not only for the production, but for the most 
perfect development of the greatest talents and the 
most exalted virtue. 

Richard H. Menefee, whose death clothed this 
immediate community with mourning, threw a shade 
over Kentucky, and awakened the sympathies of the 
whole American public, was born in the town of 
Owingsville, and county of Bath, 4th December, 1809. 
His father, Richard Menefee, was an early emigrant 
from Virginia. He was a man by trade a potter, and 
exercised his calling for many years in Bath. 
Although of exceedingly limited education and origi- 
nally of very humble fortune, the native strength of 
mind and the love of information raised him to very 
respectable attainments in knowledge, while the integ- 
rity of his character, no less than his sagacity com- 
manded the confidence as well as the respect of all who 
knew him. He was repeatedly elected to the legislature 
of Kentucky and served one term in the Senate. The 
characters and the career of distinguished men have 
sometimes been traced to circumstances apparently 
trifline: which even in infancv have been thought to 
have settled the bent of the mind. The biographer of 
Napoleon has noted among the earliest and most 
prominent incidents of his infancy, that his first play- 
thing was a miniature cannon, with its mimic equip- 
ments. From this first impression, or early predilec- 
tion, the indelible image of war may have been 
stamped upon the mind and decided forever the genius 



282 RICHARD HICKMAN MENIFEE 

and the passions of the conqueror of Europe, In 
1809, Kentucky's great Senator was fast drawing 
upon himself the gaze of men. The saffron tints of 
morning had ah'eady announced the coming of that 
orb which has since shone forth with such splendor 
in the eyes of the civilized world. The father of our 
Richard had at one time determined to call his son 
Henry Clay, and indeed the infant statesman and 
orator wore the name for the first two or three months 
of his existence. It was subsequently altered to 
Richard Hickman, from respect to a warm personal 
and family friend, but the boy was apprised of the 
praenomen of his infancy, and fired even in childhood 
by the fame of his great countryman, breathed often to 
heaven his fervent orison, that he might one day equal 
the eloquence, the greatness and the reputation of Air. 
Clay. That the love of glory was the master-passion 
of his nature, and that sooner or later some event or 
circumstance must have roused it to life and action we 
cannot doubt, and yet it may be that the simple cir- 
cumstance we have cited, may have marked out the 
path and determined the object of his ambition. That 
it made a deep impression upon his childish imagina- 
tion, is a veritable and very interesting fact in his 
boyish biography. He was left by his father an 
orphan at about four years of age and an estate never 
large was almost entirely wrecked by mismanagement 
and that bane of widows and orphans, a law suit — in 
which it had been left involved. Richard's utmost in- 
heritance of worldly goods did not exceed a few hun- 
dred dollars. He seems till he was about twelve years 
of age, to have been indebted almost exclusively to his 
mother's instructions for the rudiments of knowledge 
he received. For her he cherished to his latest hour 
the fondest veneration. He was her champion in 
boyhood, for sorrow and misfortune fell fast upon 
her. It was in his mother's defence that the lion of 
his nature first broke out. Incidents might here be 
related, exhibiting in rare perfection the depth of 



MEMORIALS 283 

filial piety and dauntless heroism in a boy of fifteen, 
but they involve circumstances and feeling too delicate 
for a stranger's touch. In proof of the strength and 
tenderness of his private affections, it may here be 
stated, that after he commenced the practice of law, 
though pressed by the claims of his own family, he 
devoted a portion of his own slender means to the 
support of a brother, overwhelmed with personal mis- 
fortunes, and an orphan sister, and continued it till his 
death. At twelve years of age, so far as I have been 
able to learn, he first entered a public school. Like 
steel from flint, the collision of other minds struck 
instant fire from his own. The first competition 
brought into full play the passion for distinction, 
which formed the master principle of his nature. His 
teacher was astonished at the intense application, sur- 
passing progress and precocious genius of the boy. He 
predicted to his pupil his future greatness, exhorted 
him to perseverance and furnished him every facility 
in his power. With this gentleman, whose name was 
Tompkins, (it should be written in letters of gold,) he 
seems to have remained without interruption for two 
years, at which period his mother married a second 
time, and he was removed from school. Clouds and 
thick darkness gathered now, over his fortunes and his 
darling hopes. At fourteen, he was summoned to 
attend at a tavern bar in Owingsville. But the omen 
of his first name still cheered him on, and the fire 
which had been first kindled within hhii could not be 
extinguished. He compromised the matter at home 
and served at the bar or labored in the field during the 
summer, for the privilege of school during the winter 
months. Even this did not last, for want of means, 
(mark that, ye of more prosperous fortunes;) for 
want of means to defray his tuition fees, this uncon- 
querable boy exchanged the character of pupil for 
preceptor at fifteen years of age and taught what he 
had learned to others for hire during the winter 
months, that he might accumulate a fund with which 



284 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

to prosecute his own education thereafter. He con- 
tinued thus till about his sixteenth year ; when, in 
consequence of unpleasant difficulties with his step- 
father, he was taken to Mountsterling by Mr. Stockton, 
an intimate friend of his deceased father. From this 
time he seems to have been left to his own guidance, 
and wrestled alone with his fortune. Upon the di- 
vision of the wreck of the paternal estate, a negro was 
assigned to Richard, about the period of his removal 
from home. He sold this slave to his friend, and with 
the proceeds, together with what he had earned as a 
preceptor, maintained himself at the public school in 
Mountsterling till his eighteenth year, when he en- 
tered Transylvania as an irregular Junior. The rules 
of college would have excluded him from the privilege 
of examination and debarred him even from a trial 
for the honors of his class. But that discipline which 
fixes a given time for given accomplishments and 
deems their attainment impossible, save within the 
limits and in the mode prescribed, was not framed for 
such as he. The hardy orphan who had been tutor 
and instructor of others at fifteen, and absolute and 
unheeded master of himself at sixteen, was not likely 
to be damped or daunted from his not having passed 
through a technical routine of studies, based upon 
ordinary calculations and framed for ordinary minds. 
He had already trampled upon the legal maxim which 
fixes one and twenty as the age for self-government, 
already "had his daring boyhood governed men." 
He gazed in scorn upon the artificial impediment 
which would have barred him from academic honors, 
and cleared it at a bound. His intrepid genius, his in- 
tense application, and the bold and extra-collegiate 
range of his information had attracted the eye and the 
admiration of the celebrated President Holley. 
Through his intercession and influence the strict canon 
of the University was dispensed with in Richard's 
behalf; he was admitted to an examination with his 
class, and bore away the palm. Upon his return to 



MEMORIALS 285 

Mountsterling his funds were exhausted and he again 
became a private tutor while he prosecuted the study 
of law with Judge James Trimble. He persevered in 
his labors and his studies till the year 1830. when 
upon the death of his friend Stockton, whose affairs 
required the superintendence of a lawyer and to whom 
he held himself bound by a debt of gratitude, in his 
twenty-first year he obtained a license to practice and 
undertook as his first professional act, without charge, 
to settle and arrange the complicated and embarrassed 
affairs of his friends. In the fall of 1831 he was en- 
abled to attend the law lectures here, when he became 
a distinguished member of your society. In the 
spring of 1832 he received the appointment of Com- 
monwealth's Attorney, and in August before he had 
attained his twenty-third year he was married to the 
eldest daughter of' the late IMatthew Jouett. It is not 
among the least interesting circumstances which con- 
centrate in the union of these two orphans, that the 
dowerless daughter of Kentucky's most gifted artist 
should have found a tutor in her childhood every way 
adequate to form her taste and fashion her under- 
standing, and that in the dawning graces of her first 
womanhood reflecting back upon its source the light 
she had borrowed should have dravv^n and fastened to 
her side as friend and protector through life, that same 
boy preceptor from whose precocious mind her own 
had drawn its nutriment and its strength. Jouett and 
Menefee! what an union of names, what a nucleus for 
the public hopes and sympathies to grow and cluster 
round, to cling and cleave to. And they are united in 
the person of a boy, a glorious and beauteous boy — 
upon whose young brow and every feature is stamped 
the seal of his inheritance. I have seen this scion of 
a double stock through whose young veins is poured 
in blending currents the double tide of genius and of 
art. Bless thee, Jouett Menefee, and may heaven 
which has imparted the broad brow of the statesman 
orator along with the painter's ambrosial head and 



286 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEF'EE 

glowing eye, may heaven shield and preserve the boy, 
from the misfortunes of thy house. 

Mr. Menefee retained his appointment, and located 
at Mountsterling continued the practice of law with 
extraordinary success in the various counties of that 
mountainous district till August, 1836, when he was 
returned the member from Montgomery to the House 
of Representatives of Kentucky. It was the fortune of 
your speaker to-day, to have served in the same body 
during that session, and it was at this period that he 
first saw and became acquainted with the illustrious 
subject of this discourse. The impression which Mr. 
Menefee then made was instantaneous, and inefface- 
able. He was in his twenty-seventh year, but the 
lightness of his hair, his delicate complexion and 
almost beardless face, and a certain juvenile outline of 
person, made him look to a transient observer some 
years younger than he really was. I knew nothing 
then, nor till long after, of his private history. He 
stood among his colleagues in legislation, almost an 
entire stranger. He was surrounded by no peculiar 
circumstances or associations of influence or of 
interest. No pomp of heraldry blazened his hitherto 
obscure name; no hereditary honors glittered around 
his pale brow ; no troop of influential connections or 
family partisans stood ready to puff him into prompt 
notice, or to force him upon fame. Even the incidents 
of his young life which would have won for his chiv- 
alric spirit an admiring and generous sympathy were 
unknown. The storms through which his star had 
waded in its ascent, the strife perpetual which he had 
waged from infancy with evil circumstances and most 
malignant fortune had rolled over him unknown or 
unheeded by that world to whose service and applause 
he had been fighting his way. He came into the lists 
unattended, without device, armorial bearing, squire, 
pursuivant, or herald. Entertaining the views which 
Mr. Menefee did, it cannot be doubted that he 
regarded the legislature of Kentucky as an important 



MEMORIALS 287 

theatre to him. It was the entrance into that temple 
upon whose loftiest turret his eye had been fastened 
from childhood. The scene was practically at least 
an entirely new one to him. He was well aware, no 
man more so, of the importance of first impressions 
upon a body constituted as that of which he was a 
member. One would naturally have expected from 
a person situated as he was, great anxiety, not un- 
mixed with bashfulness and timidity in his debut. 
You might have anticipated too, the selection of some 
question of great and general interest, and the careful 
and elaborate preparation, by so young and aspiring a 
member, of a speech duly laden with flowers, and 
studded with all the rhetorical gems of trope and 
figure. No such thing. He threw himself easily and 
naturally, and with apparent carelessness, into debate 
for the first time, upon a bill entirely private in its 
character and of not the smallest interest to the house. 
No sooner had he risen however, and his bell tones 
vibrated through the hall, than every eye and ear were 
riveted into attention. There was about him an air of 
practiced ease, a self-possession, a deliberation, as 
utterly remote from affectation or impudence, as it was 
entirely free from confusion or timidity. He wore 
the cheek of a boy, and moved with the tread of a vet- 
eran. There was no impatience for display, no ambi- 
tious finery, no straining after effect about him, but 
there was a precision and clearness in his statement, 
an acuteness, a strength and clearness in his argument, 
which bespoke a mind not only of the greatest original 
power, but trained in the severest school of investiga- 
tion, and to which the closest reasoning was habitual 
and easy. He seemed to move too. in his natural 
element, as though he had so long and so carefully 
revolved in his own mind the theatre of public affairs 
as being the true stage for him that he stood there 
albeit for the first time without surprise or anxiety. 
It was upon a motion of his own to reverse a report 
from the committee of courts of justice upon a bill 



288 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

authorizing the sale of some infant's real estate, that 
he was first heard to speak. The present Governor 
of the Commonwealth was at the head of the com- 
mittee, and some of the most experienced members of 
the house, and of the ablest professional men in the 
country were members of it. The member from 
Montgomery attacked their report with so much 
vivacity and such remarkable ability, that they felt 
themselves compelled to make a regular and formal 
defence, which they did seriatim, and it is no reflec- 
tion upon their talent to state now, what all felt then 
to be true, that their young antagonist was a match 
for the whole. This debate and the occasion of it 
would have passed from my memory long since, but 
that they served to develop to my view for the first 
time, the character and the powers of a man evidently 
marked out for greatness, whose subsequent career 
was one unbroken series of splendid successes, whose 
genius then first fairly risen upon the public, within 
three years from that date, shot into the zenith with an 
horizon stretching to the utmost boundary of the 
American States. After this first effort, trifling as 
would seem the occasion, Mr. Menefee was no longer 
considered in the light of a promising young man. 
He did not climb gradually into favor and influence 
with the House, but sprang at once and with an 
elastic ease truly surprising, into the position, not only 
of a debater of the highest order, but of a leading 
mind, whose ripened judgment and matured thought 
rendered his counsels as valuable, as the eloquence in 
which they w^ere conveyed was striking and delightful. 
He was a member of the committee of finance, and 
reported and carried in the face of the most violent 
opposition, what is usually termed the "equalizing 
law" by which the ordinary revenue without an 
increase of taxation, but by including new subjects, 
has gained upwards of thirty thousand dollars per 
annum. The debates in the Kentucky legislature are 
not reported, and little attention is paid, and little 



MDMORIAI^S 289 

interest manifested throughout the country in what is 
passing at the capitol in Frankfort. Yet upon the 
narrower and more obscure theatre which he then 
trod, did Mr. Menefee display during that winter, 
powers and quahties which in Washington would, as 
they afterwards did, have covered him with glory and 
fixed his name. Compelled by the particular interest 
which I then represented, (being a member from the 
city of Louisville) to be thrown into frequent collision 
with Mr. Menefee in the debates of the house, I had 
ample opportunity both to know and to feel his intense 
power as a disputant. Attracted powerfully by the 
whole structure and style of the man, I studiously 
sought occasions for a close and critical observation of 
him. To men curious in such things he was a subject 
altogether worthy of study. Accident threw me 
somewhat into his personal confidence, which fur- 
nished better opportunities of ascertaining the dis- 
tinctive traits of his character and the habitual com- 
plexion of his mind, than the mere contests of argu- 
ment and public discussion would have afforded. In 
the course of the session, he was heard upon every 
question of state policy and always with an attention 
which showed how deep he was in the confidence of the 
House. Upon a proposition to reduce the salaries of 
the State engineers, to which he was opposed, he took 
occasion to discuss the system of internal improve- 
ment, as it is called, in which he showed that lawyer 
as he was, he had found time to study deeply the 
sources of national wealth, and the principles of public 
economy. Upon a proposition of his own which he 
lost, to place the salaries of the judges at Louisville 
upon the same footing with the other judges of the 
Commonwealth, he displayed in the most eminent 
degree the peculiar traits of his genius. It was not 
the discrimination in the amount of the salaries to 
which he objected. It was that principle in the law, 
which virtually made the Commonwealth's judges at 

19 



290 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

Louisville to be paid by, and of course to be dependent 
to a certain extent, upon that corporation, which he 
resisted and exposed. But the master effort of his 
mind- that winter, was on the bill to repeal the law of 
1833 prohibiting the importation of slaves. Never 
yet have I heard or read among all the discussions to 
which that law has given rise, an argument so mas- 
terly, so statesmanlike, so triumphant as that of Mr. 
Menefee. Profoundly practical, and standing utterly 
aloof from the extremes of fanaticism, he displayed 
the deepest knowledge of the natural foundations of 
social prosperity, and the most cautious regard for 
existing institutions. Equally exempt from the rash 
spirit of political empiricism which would tear the sub- 
sisting frame of society to pieces, in search of that 
which is abstractly good, and from that worse than 
cowardice, which shutting its eyes upon what is abso- 
lutely and demonstrably evil, would deepen and ex- 
tend it, for the wise reason that it is not perfectly 
curable, that desperate quackery, which would spread 
a cancer over the whole body, because it could not be 
safely extirpated, he neither lauded slavery as a bless- 
ing, nor dreamed. with crazy philanthropists, or mur- 
derous incendiaries of its sudden and violent extinc- 
tion. He adhered to the law of 1833 as a means of 
checking the increase of an evil which could not now 
be prevented. It is a public misfortune, and a draw- 
back upon Mr. Menefee's fame, brilliant as it is, that 
his speeches in the legislature of Kentucky were not 
preserved. Regarding him, as I have already said 
with the deepest interest, and under circumstances 
very favorable for obsen^ation, I describe him as he 
impressed himself upon me. The great characteristic 
of his mind was strength, his predominant faculty was 
reason, the aim of his eloquence was to convince. 
With an imagination rich, but severe and chaste, of an 
elocution clear, nervous and perfectly ready, he em- 
ployed the one as the minister, and the other as the 



MEMORIALS 291 

vehicle of demonstration. ITe dealt not in gaudy 
ornament or florid exhibition ; no gilded shower of 
metaphors drowned the sense of his discourse. He 
was capable of fervid invective, vehement declamation, 
and scathing sarcasm, but strength, strength was the 
pervading quality, and there was argument even in 
his denunciation. "No giant form set forth his com- 
mon height," no stentor voice proclaimed a bully in 
debate; yet did he possess the power of impression, 
deep, lasting impression, of interesting you not only 
in what he said, but in himself, of stamping upon the 
memory his own image, in the most eminent degree, 
and in the most extraordinary manner, of any man of 
his age whom it has been my fortune to encounter. 
"Bomiui viniiu facile credercs, magnuiii Uhenter." 
Although removed the farthest possible, from the 
affection of mystery, or any asserted and offensive pre- 
tension to superiority over other men, and although 
his manner was exempt entirely from the charge of 
haughtiness, still as he appeared at that time, he loved 
not familiarity and courted no intimacy. He w^as 
bland, courteous, and perfectly respectful in his inter- 
course; still there was a distance, an undefinable sort 
of reserve unmixed w^ith pride, but full of dignity, 
keeping frivolity aloof and attracting at once your 
curiosity and your interest. Upon his forehead, 
which w^as broad, and full and very commanding, were 
traced the indisputable lines of intellect and genius. 
His pale and delicate brow Avas stamped with the 
gravity and the care of premature manhood. About 
his lip and mouth w^ere the slight, but living and in- 
delible traits of a resolved and ambitious spirit. The 
whole countenance A\'as that of a man who had suffered 
and struggled, but who had conquered the past and 
was prepared to grapple fearlessly with the future. 
But the master expression, the natural language which 
breathed from his face, from step. gesttuT. and even 
the almost feminine tone of his voice and which con- 



292 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^EE 

trasted so strangely with the deHcacy of the whole, 
was energy, un fainting, indomitable, though curbed 
and regulated energy, which could sustain him 
through all danger and under all fortune, and which 
would and must bear him on to the utmost mark at 
w'hich his ambition might aim, and to which his talents 
were at all adequate. There was nothing restless or 
impatient about him. His was deliberate, concen- 
trated, disciplined energy. He had that managed 
calmness of general manner, which so often betokens 
a fiery and excitable temperament, but under the most 
perfect control. Never man was more entirely master 
of himself than Mr. Menefee. His conversation cor- 
responded with and deepened the impression made by 
his public speeches and a close examination of his 
whole appearance. He had all the quickness and 
penetration of a man of true genius, but without a 
spark of wildness or eccentricity. There was no 
dreamy idealism, no shadowy romance, no morbid 
sentimentalism about him. The occasional splendor 
of his illustrations proved him to be sure possessed of 
an imagination not only grand and lofty, but exqui- 
sitely sensible of the beautiful and the soft, but it was 
the ally, not the principal ; and an ally upon which his 
sovereign reason, abounding in its own resources, 
leaned but little and drew but seldom. His fancy 
drew her inspiration from the natural fountains 
around and within him. It was not even tinsred with 
the sickly light of modern fiction. His whole mind 
was eminently healthy. His was the seriousness of 
determination, unmixed with gloom or melancholy. 
The purity of his language, which was remarkable for 
its beauty as well as its precision, declared a mind im- 
bued with elegant letters, but there was an antique 
severity in his taste, a marble firmness as well as 
smoothness in his style, which spoke of the hardihood 
and muscle of the Grecian masters, those first teachers 



MEMORIALS 293 

and eternal fountains of poetry and eloquence.^ But 
neither Mr. Menefee's conversation, nor his attain- 
ments, nor his talents, eminent as they all were, sur- 
prised me so much as the matured and almost rigid 
tone of his character, the iron control which he exer- 
cised over himself, the cool, practical and experienced 
views which he took of the world, and the elevation, 
consistency and steadiness of his purposes. These 
were the qualities which made his talents useful ; these 
were the qualities which, young as he was, gave him 
such absolute hold and command of the public confi- 
dence; these were the qualities which adapted him to 
the genius and bound him to the hearts of his country- 
men, without which he might have been brilliant, but 
could never have been great. 

He had early ranged himself with that great party 
in politics, whose protracted and arduous struggles 
have at last found their consummation, and whose 
principles have been ratified by the judgment of the 
nation in the election of General Harrison to the 
Presidency. He belonged to that class of minds, who 
in every country and under every form of government, 
are found the unflinching advocates of rational and 
regulated liberty, a liberty founded in principles fixed 
and eternal, and which is only safe under the shield 
and cover of a law changeless and inviolable by the 
government, equally supreme and binding upon the 
rulers and upon the people. The imperial maxim 
"voluntas principis habet zngorcm legis" he rejected 
utterly. He loathed despotism in all its forms, and 
wherever lodged, whether in the hands of one, the 
many, or the few. Born in a monarchy, he would 
have died as Hampden died, in the assertion of legal 
limitations upon the prerogative. Born in a republic, 

^That he was familiar with the historians and orators of an- 
tiquity, particularly of Athens, I am enabled to state of my own 
knowledge. Those who knew him at college, say that he won 
his academic honors by his superiority in Mathematics and the 
languages. 



294 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

he clung to the constitutional restrictions upon the 
rapacious passions of faction. He regarded the 
courtier cringing at the footstool of a throne, and the 
demagogue lauding the absolute power of a mob, as 
equally the foes of freedom, and the just objects of 
patriot execration. He understood the term "people" 
as comprehending every interest and every individual 
and looked upon that system alone as free, which pro- 
tected each against the arbitraiy power even of the 
whole. He regarded government as something 
framed for the defence of the weak against the strong, 
of the few against the many, and considered human 
rights as only safe, where fixed laws and not the 
fluctuating caprices of men and parties were supreme. 
Strength and numbers are absolute in a state of savage 
nature, they need no laws nor magistracy for their 
support. The rights of the weak and the few, can 
only be secured by the incorporation of the eternal 
principles of liberty and justice in a constitution im- 
passable to power and immutable by party. The 
splendid popularity of a favorite chief, blinded not his 
reason, the roar or triumphant faction deafened not 
his conscience, the proscribing genius of a power 
which punished with inexorable severity, or rewarded 
with unbounded profusion, appalled not his moral 
courage, nor shook for one moment his native in- 
tegrity. Young, poor, talented and aspiring, still he 
followed where his principles led him and battled long 
on the side of a feeble and almost overwhelmed 
minority of his countrymen. To the cause which he 
espoused, through all its fortunes he adhered with 
unbroken faith and consistency and lived just long 
enough to witness its final and complete success. 

Mr. Menefee passed from the Legislature of Ken- 
tucky into the national councils, where he took his 
seat in the lower house of Congress at the called 
session of 1837. He is said to have exhibited during 
the canvass, extraordinary powers of popular elo- 



MEMORIALS 295 

quence, and unequalled grace and facility in mingling- 
with the great body of the people, demonstrating 
thereby the versatility of a mind whose strength alone 
I have been contemplating. The same destiny (for it 
seemed no less) attended him in Congress, which had 
marked his entrance upon state legislation. There 
were no gradations in his congressional history. He 
comprehended at once, and as if by instinct, the new 
scene in which he was called to act; and no sooner 
did he appear, than he was recognized as a statesman 
and a leader. The intrepid boldness of his character 
and precocious strength of his genius seem to have 
smitten all parties with astonishment. Some of the 
leading men of the political party to which he was 
opposed, pronounced him the most extraordinary man 
of his age, who had till then, appeared in Congress. 
He encountered hostility in his upward flight, (when 
did soaring genius fail to do it?) and meaner birds 
would have barred him from his pathway to the skies. 
With crimsoned beak and bloody talons, he rent his 
way through the carrion crew and moved majestically 
up to bathe his plumage in the sun. Never did a 
career more dazzlingly splendid open upon the eye of 
young ambition, than burst upon Mr. Alenefee. The 
presses teemed with his praise, the whole country was 
full of his name ; yet did he wear his honors with the 
ease of a familiar dress. He trod the new and dizzy 
path with a steady eye and that same veteran step 
which was so eminently his characteristic. Around 
his path there seem to have been thrown none of those 
delusions, which haunt the steps of youth and inex- 
perience. All was stern reality and truth. He main- 
tained his character undimmed, and his position un- 
shaken till the end of his term, and then this wonder- 
ful man imposed upon himself, his spirit and his am- 
bition, that iron control of which I have spoken and 
voluntarily retired from a theatre the most elevated 
and commanding, upon which genius and ambition 



296 RICHARD HICKMAN M'^Nt'^tt 

like his could engage in the gigantic strife for undying 
honor. At twenty-nine years of age, Mr. Menefee 
found himself upon a summit to which the dreams of 
youth and hope could scarce have aspired. He alone 
seemed neither astonished nor confounded by the 
height to which he had arisen. In 1837 an obscure 
young lawyer, scarce known beyond the precincts of 
his native highland district; in 1839 he stood forth 
on the world's great theatre in acknowledged great- 
ness, the predictions of his first tutor realized, the 
prayer of his childhood granted. He stood on that 
eminence so long and so gloriously occupied by the 
man whose name he once bore, and whose fame had 
been the pillar of fire by which he guided his footsteps 
through the long, dark, perilous and unfriended night 
of his boyhood, and he stood there at an age which 
threw even that example into the shade. The draught 
which he drank, so far from intoxicating his under- 
standing, served only to refresh and invigorate his 
spirit for the work set before him. He surveyed 
calmly from the height on which he stood, the pros- 
pect stretched beneath him, he quaffed the full beams 
of the sun of sflorv which orlowed about him. then turn- 
ing to the gentle flower at his side, which he had vowed 
to shelter and defend, to her who had loved and trusted 
him in obscurity and penury, before the world now 
ready to do him homage, had learned his transcendant 
talents and inestimable worth, and folding her, all 
bright and blushing in the light of her husband's glory 
to his bosom, he descended without a sigh, to vindicate 
her confidence and toil for support. 

He was now, though steeped in poverty, in the full 
possession of fame. He was known universally. 
Over his character there hung no doubt nor shadow. 
He had but to select his ground, to choose his theatre. 
His talents, his acquirements, his habits, all fitted him 
eminently for the bar. A self-made scholar, he was of 
indefatigable application — with a mind of singular 
acuteness naturally and now much enlarged and 



MEMORIAI^ 297 

Strengthened by the great topics it had grasped and 
the powerful colHsions into wliich it had been thrown, 
he was pecuharly fitted for the largest and most com- 
prehensive views of jurisprudence. Of an integrity 
stainless as the untrodden snow and without one vice 
to consume his time or warp his career, he was sure to 
devote himself to the interests of his clients. In the 
summer of 1839 he located himself in Lexington. 
There was no dreary noviciate with him. He stepped 
into the forum armed at all points, and business flowed 
in* upon him in a full and rich tide. Never did any 
man occupy such a position in Kentucky as did Mr. 
Menefee in the opening of his professional career in 
Lexington. The public sympathies rallied around to 
cheer and to support him in a manner utterly un- 
known in any other case. Each step of his progress 
but deepened the interest and vindicated more triumph- 
antly the opinion entertained for him. Men flocked 
in crowds to hear him speak, his counsel was sought 
and relied on, and his services engaged whenever 
it was practicable at points distant from the scene 
of his immediate operations. At a period of life when 
most men are just rising into business, he was steeped, 
actually overwhelmed with the weightiest, most hon- 
orable and most profitable causes. The sun of pros- 
perity broke out upon him with a warmth and bril- 
liancy entirely without example. All difficulties had 
vanished from before him. In the past he found 
nothing with which to upbraid himself. The rough 
road through which he had journeyed from childhood 
was marked throughout with trophies of his triumph- 
ant spirit. His country regarded him as public prop- 
erty, and waiting with fond impatience the attainment 
of that pecuniary independence which his erect and 
honorable nature deemed essential to his character, 
stood ready w^ith open arms to receive him into her 
service and crowm him with her choicest honors. For- 
tune was absolutely within his grasp. He was the 
slave of honor, not the drudge of avarice. It was in- 



298 RICHARD HICKMAN M^N^FEE 

dependence that he sought, independence for himself 
and his nesthngs. He had tasted the bitter fruits of 
early poverty and although he had triumphed he 
would not doom his little ones to their father's strug- 
gles and sufferings. He must have attained the object 
of his pursuit even before he had reached his man- 
hood's prime, and then he could have turned him 
again without a crime to the pursuits of ambition, 
again have mounted the solar heights from whence 
his moral nature had forced his intellectual down. 
For one short year Air. Menefee's delicate frame sus- 
tained the fiery energies of his mind. In the spring of 
1840 in reply to a note from myself on professional 
business, he alluded to the decline of his health in a 
tone of sadness, not despondence — his was a soul that 
never desponded — which struck me as ominous and 
prophetic. Disease had indeed fastened its fangs upon 
his body, its force was vain against his mind. With 
rapidly declining health he persevered in his business 
till in September in a case of vast magnitude, in which 
Messrs. Clay and Wickliffe were both employed 
against him, he put forth for the last time his immor- 
tal energies at the bar. Like the Hebrew giant his 
last effort was the greatest. Oh, would to God that 
he had been or could have been induced to spare him- 
self ! But the occasion had come, and the ruling pas- 
sion strong in death, broke out with irresistible force 
to throw its radiance over his funeral pile. Ambition 
has been called the last infirmity of noble minds. To 
me it seems to constitute their essence and their 
strength. I mean not the love of power, but that 
higher ambition, the love, the yearning after that im- 
perishable fame, which shines through far generations 
and with an increasing light over the memory of great 
and glorious talents, greatly and gloriously exerted in 
the cause of justice and mankind. This appeared to 
me to be the master passion of Mr. Menefee's soul. 
He must have been conscious of an extraordinary fate 
and an extraordinary genius. He must have appeared 



MEMORIAIvS 299 

to himself as he certainly did to all others, a man 
marked out from birth for great actions and the most 
splendid distinction. What had he not achieved ? His 
friends may challenge the history of this country for 
a parallel. I have said that I had observed him closely 
in 1836. I have had intimate opportunities since his re- 
tirement from Congress. I have conversed with him 
since his disease was distinctly developed and the quali- 
ties which struck me with so much force upon our first 
acquaintance appeared to gather strength with time. 
There was an unsparing intensity in his mind, a concen- 
tration of the whole soul upon his pursuits, a haste, a 
rapidity, as though he feared the sun of life should go 
down ere the goal assigned to his genius had been at- 
tained. Was he conscious, (such a suspicion has some- 
times flashed across me, and from remembered conver- 
sations gathered strength,) could he have been con- 
scious that the seeds of early death w^ere implanted in 
his original constitution, and was it this which spurred 
his fiery soul to such gigantic and unpausing strides 
upon his road to greatness ? Himself at all events he 
did not and he would not spare. This was his only 
crime ; the generous martyr ; for this and this alone can 
his country reproach him. Perchance the opportunity 
of measuring himself wath that great genius, whom he 
had proposed originally as his standard, struck upon 
his heroic temperament, and roused the poetry of his 
nature, as being a meet finale to a life like his. Be that 
as it may, he dashed at the opportunity as new-fledged 
eaglets dash into the sun. He did measure himself 
and, in that effort, pouring forth his genius and his 
life, reached the consummation of his first wishes, the 
utmost point of his childhood's prayer. He was meas- 
ured and found a match for one whose thunders long 
have shaken the American Senate and who was erst 
the monarch of the forum. Mr. Menefee sunk grad- 
ually from September. His waning life sunk, not his 
spirit. When apprised at last that his hour had ar- 
rived, "Brief summons" was the reply, and he manned 



300 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE 

himself to die with dignity. His sense of duty, the 
energy and collectedness of his nature and his cautious 
regard for others, were strikingly manifested by the 
last act of his life. He made his will, executed a mort- 
gage to indemnify a friend who was responsible for 
him and ere the next sun had risen, his own had set 
forever. 

Thus perished in the thirty-second year of his life, 
Richard H. Menefee, a man designed by nature and 
himself, for inevitable greatness. A man of the rarest 
talents and of the most commanding character. A 
man whose moral qualities were as faultless, as his in- 
tellectual constitution was vigorous and brilliant. A 
man to whose advancing eminence there was no limit 
but the Constitution of his country, had not the en- 
ergies of his mind proved too mighty for the material 
elements which enclosed them. 

" ' 'Twas his own genius gave the final blow, 

And helped to plant the wound that laid him low. 
So the struck Eagle stretched upon the plain, 
No more through rolling clouds to soar again, 
Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart. 
And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart. 
Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel 
He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel. 
And the same plumage that had warmed his nest, 
Drank the last life-drop from his bleeding breast.' "* 

Kentucky's first Cecil Rhodes scholar to 
Oxford University, Mr. Clarke Tandy, in a 
prize oration entitled, "The Hero as Orator," 
after calling the roll of the world's greatest 
orators, said: "Why should we of Kentucky 
turn to any land beneath the starry heavens 
for examples of the hero as orator. John C. 
Breckinridge, John J. Crittenden, Clay, Mar- 
shall, and Menefee have bequeathed to us their 

^Lord Byron's "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," lines 
824-834- 



MEMORIALS 301 

immortal names. Among their speeches may 
be found specimens of matchless eloquence. 
In our own proud heroic State was pronounced 
one of the most exquisite eulogies in all the 
annals of oratory. We have heard Pericles at 
the graves of the Peloponnesian heroes; 
we have heard IMark Antony speaking in 
Caesar's funeral; we have heard Melancthon 
delivering the funeral oration over Martin 
Luther; we have heard Bishop Bossuet at the 
burial of Louis de Bourbon; we have heard 
'Light Horse Harry' Lee l)emoaning the 
Father of our Country, but where, where can 
a more brilliant eulogy be found than that 
crystal tear which Thomas Marshall wept for 
Richard Menefee?" 

Menefee's widow and his little four-year-old 
son, Richard Jouett Menefee, sat on the plat- 
form while Marshall was delivering his pane- 
gyric. When Marshall referred to Jouett 
Menefee, he took him in his arms and de- 
scribed his great physical beauty, as given in 
the eulogy. As he returned him to his moth- 
er's arms, he said, ''God bless thee, Jouett 
Menefee." The word "God" is left out of the 
eulogy through a very obvious typographical 
error. 

The Law Society was so well pleased with 
Marshall's effort that they appointed a com- 
mittee of three to communicate with Marshall 
and obtain his manuscript for publication. 
The famous orator took a month to answer 
them, on account of "severe indisposition and 
the most pressing engagements," but he sent 
them the manuscript. It was immediately 
published by the Finnells, printers, in pam- 



302 RICHARD HICKMAN MEINEI^'EE; 

phlet form, and in this form was preserved 
until W. L. Barre in "Marshall's Speeches" 
(1858), incorporated it into his book, prefac- 
ing it with the following notice: "In the 
month of February, 1841, Kentucky was called 
to mourn the death of Richard H. Menefee; 
a champion in her legislature, and a star of 
the first magnitude in the national councils, 
he stood in the first ranks with those of the 
list of fame. Though he had not attained his 
thirty-second year, he already stood upon the 
apex of an immortal pyramid of his own 
erection. Of generous impulses, possessing 
talents of the highest order, and an ardent 
thirst for that glory he acquired, and having 
'died ere he reached his prime,' the universal 
sorrow of the time was Init natural. On the 
twelfth of the ensuing April, the members of 
the Law Society of Transylvania University 
met in the chapel of Morrison College, in Lex- 
ington, for the purpose of paying a tribute to 
their lamented associate. Before a large audi- 
ence that felt deeply the solemnity of the occa- 
sion, Mr, Marshall arose and delivered the fol- 
lowing address. The annals of eulogy and 
panegyric may be sought in vain for a happier 
piece of composition. Rich in feeling, copious 
in thought, and glowing with the eloquence 
of a soul gushing its fervor at the grave of a 
departed friend, it is a monument to the 
genius and talents of the dead and of the liv- 
ing — equally imperishable to both." 

Kentuckv's foremost historian, R. H. Col- 
lins, said at the close of his sketch of Menefee: 
"He was great as a lawyer and greater as a 
statesman. The eulogy of Thomas F. Mar- 



MEMORIALS 303 

shall upon Menefee's life and services — the 
tribute of genius to genius, of brilliant but 
erratic genius to genius still more brilliant and 
self-poised and commanding — is one of the 
most graceful and eloquent in tlie whole field of 
panegyric literature." 

Marshall's eulogy and Frazer's picture were 
the two greatest Menefee memorials until the 
State of Kentucky decided to make a more 
lasting memorial than even these. In 1869 
the legislature of Kentucky created a new 
county and named it for him. On February 
24, 1869, Orlando C. Bowles, representative 
from Pike County, introduced a bill to estab- 
lish the county of Menefee, out of parts of 
Montgomery, Bath, Morgan, Powell, and 
Wolfe Counties. The Flouse passed the bill 
and on March 8 the Senate did likewise. Two 
days later Governor John W. Stephenson ap- 
proved the bill, and one more memorial to the 
might of Menefee had been created. Commis- 
sioners were appointed to locate the county 
seat, which was to be called Frenchburg, in 
honor of the man whom Menefee defeated for 
Congress. Menefee County is the one hundred 
and thirteenth Kentucky county in the order of 
formation, and is in the ninth Congressional 
district. It has recently been brought into the 
limelight because of the natural gas that has 
been discovered in its hills. By a mistake the 
name was incorrectly spelled, Menifee. Some 
years ago a bill to change the "i" to "e" passed 
the Kentucky Senate, but through an over- 
sight the House did not act upon it. A 
statute should be enacted by the next legis- 
lature to correct the spelling. 



304 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^'EE 

We come now to a most interesting fact. 
Jouett Menefee, Menefee's son, heard of the 
creation of this new county, and he thought it 
would be an appropriate act to present the 
new county with a picture of his father. He 
accordingly commissioned his friend, Thomas 
S. Noble, a native of Kentucky, superin- 
tendent of the Cincinnati Art School, to paint 
the picture from the original one by Oliver 
Frazer, Mr. Noble has written me that the 
picture was presented by Jouett Menefee, to 
the bar of Owingsville, conditionally, and that 
it was to be removed to the court-house in 
Menefee County as soon as it was completed. 
The Bath County bar evidently understood 
Mr. Menefee differently, as, on July 6, 1872, 
the bar met and the picture was presented by 
Capt. B. D. Lacy. Eloquent resolutions were 
passed upon Menefee's greatness, and thanks 
to his son for the very excellent copy that 
Noble had made of Frazer's picture. Whether 
Noble understood Jouett Menefee correctly, 
or whether the Owingsville bar understood 
him correctly, I do not know. At any rate, 
the picture hangs to-day in the Owingsville 
court-house, and there is no picture in French- 
burg. 

Jouett Menefee presented a portrait of his 
father to the Lexington court-house, but it 
was destroyed when the court-house was 
burned in 1897. I have been unable to ascer- 
tain who made this copy of the Frazer picture, 
but Judge William B. Kinkead began his 
sketch of Menefee by referring to this copy 
adversely. The presentation of the picture 
provoked Judge Kinkead's sketch. It was 



MEMORIAI.S 3^5 

based on personal recollections, and extended 
from the time that Kinkead met Menefee at 
the Transylvania University Law School, in 
1831, untif his death. Many parts of it have 
been used, but the second and last two para- 
graphs deserve to be given entire. 

I have known personally or historically most of the 
celebrated men of Kentucky, and am impressed with 
the belief that Richard H. Menefee was the ablest man 
ever born in the State. He died when only thirty-two 
years old, having obtained a distinction above that ac- 
quired by any other man at so early an age. He pos- 
sessed more of the elements for great success than any 
other I have ever known. With intellect quite equal 
to Mr. Clay's he had a calmness and courage, a self- 
reliance and perseverance rarely encountered, while he 
was likewise remarkable for a genial kindness and de- 
votion to his friends. He became at once the idol of 
the people. 

Kinkead then traced his career and closed 
with the words: 

At the age of thirty-two, while the hopes of the 
country were centered upon him in the full confidence 
that he would more than supply the great place so 
long occupied by Mr. Clay, and which must soon be 
relinquished by him, he passed away. He was 
mourned by the whole country. Tom Marshall deliv- 
ered his euIog}^ He knew his greatness, for he had 
felt his powder. Every one recognized that there did 
not remain in the State one man of so much ability. 

But how fleeting and evanescent are all the honors 
bestowed on even the rarest talents. The voice of 
acclamation and praise which attends one through life, 
soon becomes stilled and silent, when one ceases to act 
among men. Unless a great character is associated 



20 



306 RICHARD HICKMAN M'ENt'^Kt 

with some great event in history, some mighty epoch 
in the nation, he is forgotten. The names that are im- 
perishable are such as Moses, Jiihus, Brutus, or Wash- 
ington — such only are immortal. 

In a popular government, where parties rule, new 
leaders will, for the time, obliterate the remembrance 
of a greater and an abler, and on the questions which 
may arise, in a few generations "our children's chil- 
dren will raise new idols — and cavil where their sires 
adored." In the great convulsions which our country 
has passed through, such seems now to be the fate of 
Richard Menefee. The memory of this young man of 
rare ability, around whom centered such lofty hopes, 
seems almost to have perished from among his coun- 
trymen. Yet there still remain old men who knew 
him, who bear testimony to his unrivaled talent, and 
many years hereafter the curious antiquarian will find 
among long forgotten records, some memorials of the 
life and early death of one who possessed the greatest 
ability of any of the sons of Kentucky. 

In 1876 there appeared two county histories 
that recorded IMenefee's deeds. One of them, 
"Historical Sketches of Montgomery County," 
prepared by Richard Reid, traced Menefee's 
career, and then closed with this tribute: 
"Menefee's death cast a gloom over the whole 
State, and especially was the grief keen and 
the mourning sincere in Montgomery, where 
everybody loved him and felt that he was the 
child of Montgomery, where his rare gifts and 
powers had first come to the notice of men, 
and where he had achieved his first triumphs." 

Young's History of Bath County traced his 
career from a local standpoint, and then added: 
"Thus died in the bloom of youth, a man who, 
b}' his transcendent genius and eloquence, had 



MEMORIALS 307 

the eyes of all America turned upon him, as 
giving promise of being the greatest statesman 
that she ever produced." 

We must turn now to round out the career 
of Menefee's distinguished son, Richard Jouett 
Menefee. At the age of fifteen years, Jouett 
Menefee left school and engaged in the 
queensware business, in Chicago, in connec- 
tion v^rith Arthur J. Burley. He sold out his 
part in the business, after several years, and 
went to Cincinnati. He again engaged in 
business, and bought an interest in the Burnet 
House. He was rapidly amassing a fortune, 
but he quit business and made an extended 
tour of the world in company with his mother. 
They visited the great European art galleries 
and became acquainted with George Healy 
and other celebrated painters. He returned to 
Louisville, and again engaged in business, and 
retained an interest in it until within two vears 
of his death. The last two years of his life 
were spent in a vain search for health. He 
died in Louisville, Tune 12, 1893, and was 
buried in Cave Llill Cemetery. Lie left a 
widow and five children who are still living. 
At the time of his death he was the ablest art 
critic living in Kentucky, and was compiling a 
biography of his famous grandfather, Mat- 
thew H. Jouett. He was an elder in the Pres- 
byterian Church, and one of the trustees of 
Center College of Danville, Kentucky. 

On August 18, 1893, a memorial service was 
held in the Menefee Memorial Church, in 
Owingsville, out of respect to Jouett Menefee. 
This church had been erected by Menefee's 
assistance because he loved the religion of 



308 RICHARD HICKMAN ME:NE^IfEE^ 

Jesus Christ, and also to perpetuate his 
father's name more effectually in the place 
of his birth. The pastor of the church, 
Rev. R. A. Walton, presented a brief bio- 
graphical sketch of Jouett Menefee. J. H. 
Herron, editor of the Oivingsville Opinion, read a 
sketch of Matthew H. Jouett, and then a 
young Owingsville lawyer arose and delivered 
a eulogy that, to me, is more exquisite than 
even Marshall's "crvstal tear." 

This young man was William Goodpastor 
Ramsey, son of Judge John A. Ramsey, and 
was born in Owingsville, December 30, 1870. 
He attended the common schools of the 
town, and at the age of twelve years received 
a certificate to teach school. He was further 
prepared for college at the public schools of 
San Antonio, Texas ; Thomasville, Georgia, 
and Denver, Colorado, where he was with his 
mother, who was seeking restoration of health. 
He then attended the University of Virginia 
two years, and then at the University of 
Michigan for the same length of time. He 
graduated in law at Michigan and then took a 
post-graduate law course. In 1896, he was the 
elector for the ninth congressional district, 
and ''stumped" every county in the district, 
which was composed of thirteen counties. 
The following year he was elected as judge of 
Bath County, and died suddenly, at his home 
in Owingsville, with apoplexy, October 21, 
1898. Judge Ramsey is the only man that 
Kentucky has produced that is, in any respect, 
comparable to Menefee; young and eloquent, 
pure and noble, he followed in the footsteps of 
the magnificent Menefee. The facts of his 



MEMORIALS 309 

eulogy are based on jMarsbaH's, and are of 
course incorrect at many points. 

RAMSKy'S speech on RICHARD MENEEEE 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

In this beautiful temple, this monument to mortal 
man, we meet in solemn conclave. Unhke the multi- 
tude and Mark Antony around the great Caesar, we 
come to praise the magnificent Menefee, not to bury 
him. 

In recorded history we seldom find a village that 
has produced a renowned soldier, a noted sculptor, and 
an orator upon whose lips the goddess of eloquence 
seemed to have nestled. 

Yet, within almost a stone's throw of this assembly, 
Joel T. Hart lived, John B. Hood and Richard Mene- 
fee moved and had their being; but the greatest of 
these was the patriot lawyer, orator and statesman. 

One bright December morning in eighteen hundred 
and nine, the subject of this memorial first saw the 
saffron tints of a cold uncongenial world, but the 
Christian mother who yielded this helpless babe in her 
morning orison prayed to the ever-merciful God to 
make her son a man among men, and then it was writ- 
ten in the records of destiny that an intellectual giant 
was born of woman, that a brilliant star was trembling 
upon the horizon, which would rise to its place in the 
zenith and there shine in undimmed glory until the 
world should be no more, and time had passed into 
eternity. 

At the tender age of four, Providence in its infinite 
wisdom made this child an orphan, but the helpless 
stage of infancy was but for a season ; for at the age 
of twelve, he was the staff, tlie support and the hero of 
his widowed mother. 

Soon began that arduous struggle for undying 
fame, and although the earliest part of life's tem- 



310 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^EE 

pestuous journey was beset with trials, temptations 
and vicissitudes galore, yet he rose superior to every 
occasion, and forced the destinies to crown him with 
a fadeless laurel and register his name in letters of 
gold, in that great temple on that never changing 
scroll of immortals. And ten decades hence, when 
truth has a hearing, the muse of history will choose 
Daniels of Virginia, Cochran of New York, Grady of 
Georgia, Ingersoll of Brooklyn; then dipping her pen 
in the sunlight, she will write in the clear blue above 
them, the name of that bright consummate flower of 
earlier orators — Richard ^Menefee. Educated in the 
common schools of Bath and Montgomery, later on an 
honor man of Transylvania University, then he began 
the study of law, was admitted to the bar ere he had 
attained his majority, and from his entrance was the 
counsellor and advocate in the most important and 
abstruse cases of the day — Oh, what a favorite of for- 
tune ! 

By an admiring constituency, he was called to the 
halls of the Kentucky legislature, at the age of twenty- 
seven, and there it was he met in the arena of debate 
the master minds of our grand Commonwealth, and as 
a logical and convincing speaker his name will be 
handed to generations not yet born, along with Clay's 
and Webster's ; but he was not to remain there long, 
for the people, recognizing transcendent talents and 
incomparable worth both as a citizen and as a states- 
man, elected him to a seat in the Federal Congress, two 
years later ; then his reputation burst beyond the con- 
fines of his native State, and it was heralded and 
flashed across our country that the brightest young 
Solon that had yet appeared in the political firmament 
was electrifying his auditors with the brilliancy of his 
rhetorical flowers and the cogency of his invincible 
logic. 

Orator, patriot, statesman, lawyer, beautifully 
blended in one, is a theme worthy to be couched in 



MEMORIALS 311 

words of noble eloquence commemorated in most en- 
during marble and transmitted to our children and our 
children's children, in poetry and in song — yea, it is 
an infinite subject in finite hands. 

With bated breath and attentive ear have I listened 
to the aged sires of our community relate in exquisite 
admiration the charms of this man's oratorical powers, 
and in my childish fancy I could imagine him in his 
flights of eloquence soaring like a mountain eagle or a 
condor of the Andes, to the illimitable space, there to 
"bathe its plumage in the thunder's home," and the 
elysian hues of an iridescent rainbow. 

One of the greatest legal battles ever fought in a 
temple of justice was between Richard Menefee and 
that immortal commoner Henry Clay and the great 
Wickliffe. Standing in the forum, in the grandeur of 
his young manhood with these great men as his un- 
compromising opponents, I can see him as Virgil was 
wont to describe ]\Iezentius surrounded by his enemies, 
he "like a solid rock by seas inclosed, to raging winds 
and the roaring waves exposed." From this proud 
summit looking down he disdains their empty menace 
and triumphant remains. Although he was the votary 
of no particular creed, yet he communed constantly 
with nature; and the breathing fragrance of Spring, 
the soft voluptuousness of Summer, the golden pomp 
of Autumn, and the sheeted earth of Winter, told him 
that there was a God, who ruled the mutations of the 
seasons and the destinies of man, and in Him he 
placed implicit trust and sublime confidence, and his 
iMaker raised him to the grandest of human heights. 

But the dread disease, consumption, which ever fixes 
its relentless fangs upon the good, immaculate and 
brilliant, claimed his pure breast as its unwelcome 
home ; and wdien he was told by weeping, sympathetic 
and sorrowing friends that his unsullied soul would 
soon wing its flight from these terrestrial troubles to 
its celestial abode, he remarked, "Brief summons," and 
folding his arms he manned himself to die with dig- 



312 RICHARD HICKMAN MENE^I^EE 

nity, for he had so lived that when that "summons" 
came to "join the innumerable caravan that moves to 
the pale realms of shade, where each should take his 
chamber in the silent hall of death, he went not like the 
quarry slave at night, scourged to his dungeon; but 
sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, he ap- 
proached his grave like one who wraps the drapery of 
his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams." 
He left a devoted wife and sorrowing son to mourn 
his untimely end, and in that son's veins courses the 
blood of two noted and illustrious families; for the 
mother of Richard H. Menefee's boy was the daugh- 
ter of the great artist, grand connoisseur, Jouett, who 
had the skill of a Michael Angelo, and the touch of a 
Reynolds. Thus perished ere he had reached the 
thirty-third milestone on life's journey — a man of 
transcendent genius, a man who has immortalized 
himself by his eloquence; a man of immeasurable 
worth, and one whose mental qualities were as fault- 
less as his intellectual constitution was vigorous and 
brilliant. And to the memory of the magnificent 
Menefee, whose life from his twenty-first year was a 
series of signal successes, I say, "Good-night," and 
may we all meet him in that beautiful land, around 
the white throne of Jehovah where the angels always 
sing and the light of heaven shines eternal. 

Richard H. Menefee had asked that his body 
should never be removed from the old Allen 
grave-yard, near Lexington. In pursuance of 
this wish his body was permitted to sleep for 
over half a century in a place that one of our 
own poets has called "God's Acre." But after 
the death of Jouett Menefee, his father's body, 
with the bodies of Menefee's two children and 
his father-in-law, Matthew H. Jouett, were dis- 
interred and brought to Louisville, and on Sat- 
urday, October 28, 1893, were buried in Cave 



MEMORIALS 3^3 

Hill Cemetery. To-day a magnificent monu- 
ment stands to tell Kentuckians that this is 
hallowed ground, for it contains the ashes of 
one of her greatest sons. He is buried near 
Dr. A. H. Redford, D. D. (1818-1884), the his- 
torian of Kentucky Methodism, the biog- 
rapher of Kavanaugh. Across the driveway, 
and over a little knoll, one comes to the red 
granite monument to Gen. George Rogers 
Clark, the distinguished conqueror of the 
Northwest. 

Many stories have been told about Menefee, 
but the best and most authentic one seems to 
be the Phil Lee story that Vice-President Adlai 
E. Stevenson, a native son of Kentucky, who is 
never so happy as when telling about old times 
and great men in the Blue Grass Common- 
wealth, has preserved. Stevenson told it some 
years ago to a correspondent of the Kansas 
City Times, and it is as follows : Col. Phil Lee, 
who was for many years Commonwealth's 
Attorney of Jefferson County, Kentucky, told 
Stevenson the story of how he was once com- 
pared to Menefee. He had made his first great 
speech to a jury. As he came out of the court- 
house, an old man took his hand and said, 
"Lord, Phil, you just reminded me exactly of 
Dick Menefee." Lee was immensely tickled 
and invited the old fellow to take a drink. 
"Yes, Phil, I could just see Dick Menefee." 
Another drink. "When you come around like 
that and riz your hand like this, I could see 
Dick Menefee." Another drink. "There's 
only a few points of difference 'twixt you and 
Dick Menefee, Phil." Another drink, and 
then Lee ventured to inquire about the points 



314 



RICHARD HICKMAN MENEI^E^ 



of difference. "Well, Phil, it did seem to me 
that you kinder lacked Dick Menefee's idees!" 

In 1900 the new Lexington court-house 
was opened and the county of Fayette had oil 
paintings made to hang on the walls of the 
court-room. Miss Mary Kinkead, a painter of 
Lexington, was commissioned to copy Oliver 
Frazer's portrait of Menefee to occupy a place 
on the walls. Col. W. C. P. Breckinridge, the 
famous Kentucky orator and journalist, wrote 
the following criticism of this copy: "Cut oft' 
in the prime of life, Menefee yet left to his 
State the heritage of a brilliant and honorable 
career. In this face, unusual as it is, at 
iirst glance far from handsome, there can be 
seen something of the poetic quality of the 
man who was, above all things, a lovable gen- 
tleman; and greater famiHarity with the 
picture will soon breed a warm affection. 
Frazer gave to the figure the sloping shoulders 
which were the fashion of the day, and which, 
to some extent, mar also his otherwise remark- 
able picture of young Henry Clay, killed at 
Buena Vista." What will probably be the 
best picture of Richard H. Menefee will be a 
copy of the Frazer picture that one of Mene- 
fee's grandsons, Mr. Speed S. Menefee, upon 
whom the mantle of Jouett has fallen, will 
paint for the Kentucky Hall of Fame, which 
will be in the new Kentucky Capitol. Mr. 
Menefee is going to paint a full-length por- 
trait, using Frazer's picture for the bust, and 
then make a study of Menefee's height, which 
will result, no doubt, in a remarkably fine por- 
trait of the great Kentucky orator. 

The following sonnet, published in a Cincin- 



MEIMORIALS 315 

nati paper, is only signed with the initials. At 
the time of its publication, Jouett Menefee 
wrote to the editors, asking for the poet's full 
name, but he received a reply stating that the 
author signed only the initials — R. R. 

"SONNET TO MENEFEE. 

"A parent's gift from Heaven, O ! orphan child, 
Ennobled thee above the kings of earth ! 
For truth and genius waited at thy birth, 
And on thy toilsome youth a glory smile, 
Illumining the work through years up-piled ; 
Self-raised, thou didst ascend to heights whose dearth 
Of occupance bespeaks heroic worth — 
Orator, patriot, statesman undefiled. 
While at thy side was one whose loveliness — 
Kentucky's artist's daughter, wife of thine — 
Was wreathing round thy fame to cheer and bless. 
Alas ! thy life at high ambition's shrine 
Was sacrificed — a harp-string broken in stress 
Of rendering some melody divine." 

— R. R. 



CHAPTER XI 

M^NEFEE, THE MAN. 

Richard Hickman Menefee's personal ap- 
pearance was described by his widow to Ed- 
ward S. Jouett, the author of the sketch of 
Menefee in "Lawyers and Lawmakers of Ken- 
tucky," substantially as follows: He was just 
six feet in height, of slight build, yet erect, mus- 
cular and graceful. His eyes were dark blue, 
bluer than the eyes of General Forrest. His 
lashes were heavy and his hair light brown and 
was getting darker as he grew older. His lips 
were rather full, but he had a beautiful mouth, 
and his teeth were perfect. His blond complex- 
ion Menefee inherited from his mother; his 
height and rather muscular, although slender, 
form, was his inheritance from his father. 
Menefee and John Keats have sometimes been 
looked at and pitied, as men of genius but 
physical weaklings. This is an incorrect judg- 
ment. While Keats was subject to lung 
trouble and was in ill health for many years, 
Menefee was ill for only a year, and up to that 
time he was as strong as he desired to be. 

Richard Menefee is the most lovable 
character in Kentucky history. Col. W. C. P. 
Breckinridge called him "a lovable gentleman." 
He had a sunny, playful disposition. When the 
day's work was done he would go horne and 
romp for hours on the floor with his children. 
Then he would study until midnight. "In all 
his life he seemed to be driven by some unseen 



MENEFEE, THE MAN 317 

force to work, work, work; he seemed to be 
saying to himself, 'the night cometh when no 
man can work.' Menefee knew men, and was 
rarely ever deceived in any one. He was not 
quick to judge men, but when he did pro- 
nounce judgment there was no appeal. He 
was a patriot, a lover of his kind, and had he 
lived, I verily believe he would never have be- 
come a corrupt politician as we have them to- 
day." Another gift of ATenefee's, an essential 
to political success, was his ability as a story- 
teller. Kentucky has produced no better 
after-dinner speaker than he. 

His Diary reveals many of his character- 
istics, a few of which may be tabulated here. 
He was both retrospective and introspective, 
though not morbid. He was also an optimist, 
regarding his ill-health as a blessing in dis- 
guise, since it gave him an opportunity to 
study history, which would have been denied 
him had he been well and attending to his 
practice. He defined history as being not a 
knowledge of mere facts and dates, but a 
knowledge obtained of the causes, effects, con- 
sequences and dependencies; in this he at- 
tained to the modern definition. On historical 
subjects he was thinking far in advance of his 
time, and had he lived he might have written 
a history that would have added new lustre 
to his name. He was especially fond of consti- 
tutional history. 

Menefee was a very modest man. With all 
the honors that Kentucky and the nation had 
heaped upon him, he remained the same. He 
was so very modest that for fear some one 
would accuse him of egotism, he would not 



3l8 RICHARD HICKMAN MElNKlfE^^ 

write an autobiography. If he had written 
one, it is safe to say it would have been the 
great Kentucky autobiography, and one that 
people of his State would not have willingly 
let die. It would have been as charming to a 
Kentuckian, at any rate, as "Franklin's Auto- 
biography." To-day when obscure men bring 
themselves before the public eye by the aid of 
their ''own story," and when a man of Mene- 
fee's fame refuses to write a history of his life, 
we may see this trait of his character empha- 
sized. 

Richard H. INlenefee was a moral man. 
Tradition has it that he never drank when 
wine was served at his own table, except upon 
one occasion, then he took a few sips of cham- 
pagne with a party of friends whom he was 
entertaininsf. No historian can sav of Mene- 
fee, as one has said, too truly, of Marshall, that 
if his morality had been equal to his intellect 
he would have been indeed a great man. No 
matter to what heights he may attain, no man 
is a really great man who is not moral as well. 
Morality is greater than intellect. 

He was known throughout Kentucky, and 
especially on his native heath, as "Dick" 
Menefee, just as Thomas F. Marshall and 
Abraham Lincoln were known as "Tom" and 
"Abe," and as to-day our strenuous President 
is called "Teddy." But then, we of America 
have little regard for dignified greatness. The 
man who would lead the American people 
must be one of the people. 

Menefee was ambitious. Fie admits that he 
had lived too much in the future. I have no 
doubt that he had his eye fixed upon the high- 



MENEFKE, THE MAN 319 

est office within the gift of the people — the 
Presidency itself. He did not take Shake- 
speare's advice to throw ambition away, al- 
thousfh he mav have realized bv that sin fell 
the angels. He was ambitious to be a great 
lawyer and a distinguished statesman, but it 
is as an orator that he holds his place in Ken- 
tucky history. His oratory was not the 
proverbial flower-laden style that has been 
characteristic of Southern orators. He spoke 
right on — as a plain blunt man, and in his 
simplicity there was great eloquence. Al- 
though he realized that painting and sculpture 
were more lasting than oratory, he also real- 
ized that it was God's great gift to him, and 
he made the most of that gift. As one of the 
three great Kentucky orators, younger than 
Marshall or Clay by many years, Menefee has 
received from all of the Kentucky historians 
one of their fairest pages. Henry Clay un- 
hesitatingly pronounced him the greatest 
genius that Kentucky ever produced. Only 
one other man in Kentucky history rivals him 
for his place wath Marshall and Clay, John 
Hayes (1793-1836), an erratic, often intoxi- 
cated lawyer, who lived in Bardstown, Ken- 
tucky. He was murdered while in an intoxi- 
cated condition, and to-day mention of his 
name only awakens sympathy. Menefee could 
be as sarcastic as the late Senator from Kan- 
sas, John J. Ingalls. Unlike Ingalls, he "tem- 
pered his sarcasm with genial humor which 
cured the wound which he had inflicted." 

While he was not a communicant of any 
church, Richard H. Menefee believed that Jesus 
of Nazareth was the Christ, the Son of the 



320 RICHARD HICKMAN MKN^FEIE: 

living God. A few months before his death 
he was unsettled in his religious convictions, 
but as the end drew near he became absolutely 
certain that, though a man die, he will live 
again. He belonged to the church which has 
been described as "the church without the 
church." While Menefee's biographer cannot 
call him "a great Christian" as Lord Salis- 
bury called Gladstone, yet there is great truth 
in the statement that a man of considerable 
prominence wrote to Menefee's widow: "I 
consider Menefee not only the greatest man 
that Kentucky ever produced, but the best." 
The fact remains, however, that he did not 
unite with the visible church. 

I desire to conclude this biography of Rich- 
ard Hickman Menefee with the final words of 
Thomas Carlyle's life of his friend and brother 
man of letters, John Sterling, who had many 
characteristics in common with Menefee. 
While I have not known Menefee in the flesh 
as Carlyle knew Sterling, I believe that I know 
this Kentuckian of Kentuckians. ''Nay, what 
of men or of the world? Here, visible to my- 
self, for some while, was a brilliant human 
presence, distinguished, honorable and lov- 
able amid the din of common population; 
among the million little beautiful, once moved 
a beautiful human soul; whom I, among 
others, recognized and lovingly walked with, 
while the years and hours were. Sitting now 
by his tomb in thoughtful mood, the times 
bring a new duty for me. Why write the 
Life of Menefee? I imagine I had a commis- 
sion higher than the world's, the dictate of 
Nature herself, to do what is now done. 
Sic prosit." 



INDEX 



Adair, John, 16. 
Adams, John Q., 133, 184. 
Allen, Jas. Lane, 57. 
Allen, Jas. W., 43, 44. 
Allen, Wm., 270, 275. 
Andrews, J. W., 43, 44. 
Arnold, Dr. Thos., 24. 

Barbour, Gov. Jas., 238. 
Barre, W. L., 302. 
Bashaw, J. W., 43, 44. 
Bell, John. 85. 132. 
Bell, J. F., .S3- 
Birney, Jas. G., 242, 253. 
Blackie, Wm., 15. 
Bledsoe, A. T., 15. 
Boon, Ratliffe, 193. 
Boone, Jamina, 17. 
Bourne, Walker, 23, 24, 25. 
Boyle, Capt. John, 11. 
Boyle, Justice John, 66. 
Breckenridgc, John C, 252. 
Breckinridge, W. C. P., 314. 
Breathitt, Gov. John, 49. 
Bright, John M., 278. 
Brooks, Jas. A., 32. 
Brown, John, 33. 
Bryant, Hdwin, 54, 246. 
Buckncr. R. A., 267. 
Bullitt, A. S.. 18. 
Bullitt. W. N., 43, 44. 
Bullock, W. C, 43, 44- 
Bullock. W. R, 67. 
Bush, Pleasant, 64. 

Calhoun, John, 80. 

Carlylc, Thos., 320. 

Carson, Kit, 15. 

Chambers. John, 80, 232. 

Chapman. G. T., 30, 33. 

Cheatham, E. B., 64. 

Chopin, 15. 

Clay, C. M., 54, 241. 268. 

Clay, Henry, 16, 40, ^, 80, 112, 

232, 250, 319. 
Clav. Hcnrv. Jr., 237. 
Clark, Gen." G. W., 313. 
Clark. Gov. Jas., 55, 59, 62, 21-]. 
Clements, L. V., 251. 



Collins, Lewis, 232, 275. 
Collins, R. H., 302. 
Combs, Gen. Leslie, 54, 58, 241. 
Crittenden, J. J., 80, 234, 266. 
Cusiunan, Sanuicl, 208. 
Cumbrcling, C. C, 195, 204, 
215- 

Daniel, Henry, 61, "JZ- 
Darwin, Charles, 15. 
Davenport, S. T., 20. 
Davis, Garrett, 55. 
Davis, Josiah, 37. 
Dawson, Wm. C., 212. 
Dixon, Archibald. 61, 235. 
Donaldson, Col. John, 20. 
Dudley, Dr. B. W., 269. 

Edwards, Xinian, 15. 
Everett, Edward, 196. 

Fancuil Hall, "j^^, 196. 
Fillmore, Millard, 133, 214. 
Fiske, John, 17. 
Fitz Gerald, Edward, 15. 
Forrest, Gen. N. B., 216. 
Fox, Fountain, 61. 
Frazer, Oliver, 232, 271. 
French, Richard, 74, 80, 184. 

Gaines, E. P., 57. 
Gill. Harrison, ^i^. 
Gladstone. Wm. E.. 15. 320. 
Granger, Francis, 55, 68. 
Grant. U. S., 17. 
Gravcs-Cilley duel, 140. 
Green, Judge John. 53, 54. 
Grimes, Owen, 78. 
Guerrant, Dr. H. S., 87, 88. 
Guthrie, Jas., 61, 65. 

Hall. Rev. N. H., 48, 275. 
Hanson, Samuel, 61. 
Hardin, Ben, 49, 61, 267. 
Harlan, Jas., 80, 212. 
Harrison, A. G., 26. 
Harrison, Gen. W. H., 55. 238^ 

2.=;3- 
Hart. Joel T., 271. 



11 



Index 



Hawes, Richard, 80, 232. 
Hays, John, 319. 
Helm, Gov. John L., 60. 
Henry, Patrick, 28. 
Heron, David, 53. 
Hickman, Richard, 17, 18, 19. 
Hill, Dr. Preston, 26. 
Holley, Horace, 30, 32, 33. 
Holmes, O. W., 15. 
Hood, Gen. John B., 13. 
Houghton, Lord, 15. 
Howe, Rev. Jos. F., 16, 23. 
Hunt, Charlton, 55. 
Hunter, R. M. T., 15, 82. 
Huston, Gen. J. B., 253. 

Ing^alls, John J., 319. 
Irving, Washington, 15. 

Jackson, Pres. Andrew, 57. 
Jameison, John, 26. 
Johnson, Geo. W., 37, 43, 246. 
Johnson, Madison C., 68, 82, 

249. 
Johnson, Richard N., 250, 269. 
Jouctt, Matthew H., 275. 
Jouett, Mrs. M. H., 232, 270. 
Jouett, Miss S. B. (Mrs. Mene- 

fee), 37, 48, 112. 

Keats, John, 216. 
Keiser, Col. John, 72. 
Kelley, R. F., 64. 
Kinkead, Wm. B.. 15, 37, 42, 
304. 

LaFayette, Count, 48. 
Lane, Gov. H. S., 25, 26. 
Lanier, Sidney, 24. 
Lansdowne, Col. Geo., 22, 31, 

Letcher, Gov. R. P., 54, 60, 

235, 248. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 13. 15, 318. 
Litchfield Law School, 40. 
Logan, Capt. Benj., 11. 
Lonsdale. Mary, 13, 21, 50. 

Madison, Pres. Jas., 15. 
Marshall, Thos. A.. 269. 
Marshall, Thos. F., 15, 19, 61, 

274. 318. 
Matthews, T. J., 30, 33. 
Mayes, Daniel, 41, 42. 
Mendelssohn, 15. 



Menefee, Alfred, 14, 34. 
Menefee, Richard, 12, 16, 19, 

20, 22. 
Menefee, Richard Hickman, 

address to Fayette Whigs, 

247-. 

ambition, 20. 

anti-dueling law, speech on, 
152. 

banqueted, 73. 

bar-keeper, 28. 

birth, II. 

body removed, 312. 

brothers, 14. 

campaigning, 56. 

campaign stories, 76, 78. 

candidate for Congress, 74. 

Caroline, speech, 114. 

cast last votes, 253. 

Captain, 58. 

children, 52, 80, 241. 

classmates, 25, 26. 

Commonwealth's Atty., 40. 

Congressional committee- 
man, 86. 

Congress, adjourns, 231. 
contested election, a, 132. 
contract, a, 49. 
country's condition, speech 

on, 148. 
death, 270. 
defeated for U. S. Senate, 

268. 
denounces Duncan, 217. 
Diary, 255. 

Documents, speech on, 205. 
drafts education bill, 67. 
elected Representative, 58 . 
equalizing act, author of, 64. 
Fourth Instdment, speech 

on, 88. 
Frazier's picture, 271. 
funeral, 275. 
given name, 17. 
graduation bill, the, 213. 
great record, 72. 
Hall of Fame, 85. 
Havre de Grace, address, 196. 
Hopkinsville speech, 243. 
"Kentucky," 196. 
last session of Congress, 204. 
last will of, 269. 
lawyer, 233. 
leading legislator, 61. 
leaves home, 27. 



Index 



111 



Menefee, Richard Hickman, 
leaves Transylvania, 36. 
Lee's story, 313. 
letters, 31, 34, 45, 50, 86. 
Main Boundary speech, 223. 
marriage, 47. 
Marshall's eulogj', 279. 
meets Marshall, 240. 
member Whig Committee, 

234- 
Menefee County, 303. 
Mexican speech, 128. 
neutrality bill speech, 133. 
newspaper article, a, 190. 
obituaries, 207. 
preparatory education, 23. 
Presidential elector, 236. 
proviso, a, iii. 
quotes Justice Marshall, 193. 
resolutions, 147, 194, 211, 214. 
Rodgers's Will case, 249. 
school teacher, 29, 37. 
scores Van Buren, 239. 
Swartwood defalcations, 210, 

215. . 

Telegraph resolution, 192. 
Transylvania University, 30, 

43. 
Treasury Note-bill speech, 

184. 
Washington residence, 112. 
Menefee, Richard Jouett, 80, 

307. 
Menifee, Jas. Jarrett, Jos., 

Wm., II. 
Menifie, Geo., 11. 
McDowell, Ephraim, 15, 85. 
McKee, Jas., 53. 
McKee, Col. Wm. R., 232. 
McNary, W. C, 64. 
Meriwether, David, 64. 
Metcalf, Gov. Thos., 61, 238, 

267. 
Mitchell, O. M., 15. 
Mitchell, Martha, 48. 
Morehead, Gov. jas. T., 53, 

268. 

Nichols, Geo., 40. 

Osceola, Geo., 57. 
Owings, Thos. D., 12, 21. 
Owsley, Gov. Wm., 235, 267. 

Peck, L. C, 152. 



Peterkin, David, 194. 
Phillipe, King Louis, 21. 
"Piper, The Wandering," 71. 
Pindell, Richard, 45, 248. 
Poe, E. A., IS. 
Polk, Jas. K., 8s, 208. 
Powell, Gov. L. W., 53- 
Prentiss, S. S., 82, 132, 196, 
206, 2x7. 

Rafinesque, C. S., 30. 
Ramsev, Wm. G., 308. 
Redford, Rev. A. H., 313. 
Rhett, R. B., 184. 
Richmond, R. F., 43, 44. 
Robertson, Justice Geo., 52, 
Robinson, Gov. Jas. F., 250. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 318. 
Rumsey, Edwards, 80. 

Shaler, N. S., 370. 
Shelby, Isaac, 18. 
Smith, "Raccoon" John, 75. 
Smith, L. B., 43, 44- 
Southgate, W. W., 61, 133, 184. 
Steele, Wm. J., 15, 44- 
Sterling, John, 320. 
Stockton, E. and R., 21, 39. 

Tennyson, Alfred, 15. 
Thompson, M. V., 236, 248. 
Thompson, J. B., 54, 235. 
Tibbotts, J. W., 2a6. 
Todd, R. S., 236. 
Transylvania University, 30, 40. 
Trimble, Judge Jas., 39. 
Tyler, John., 254. 

Underwood, Jos. R., 80, 268. 

Van Buren. Martin, 81, 242. 
Visscher, Wm. L., I3- 

Walker, C. J., 267. 
Webster, Daniel, 75, 196. 
WickliflFe, Gov. C. A., 237, 267. 
Wickliffe, R. N., Jr., 73, 239. 
Williams, Gen. S. L., 53, 268. 
Wise, H. A., 196, 204, 212. 
Woodson, Tucker, 64, 267. 
Wooley, Judge A. K., 249. 

Young, Aquila. 58. 
Young, Jas., 19. 



i 



1 



i 



AR 5 1907 



